7 Years
by Daemon.Lilith
Summary: 100 stories of Shanks and Buggy during their time with the Pirate King's crew. Rating T. Genres: Mainly friendship, but there will be elements of male/male love. Enjoy!
1. Beginnings

**AN: **

**Hello! Those of you who have read my story before will see that I've made some changes. The big AN in the beginning is gone. Because this will be a 'hundred stories' type of story I want it to have exactly a hundred chapters. **

**For all newcomers: Welcome to '7 years'! This is my tribute to the One Piece fandom: 100 stories of Shanks and Buggy during their years with the Roger Pirates. The story will be chronological and the ages of Shanks and Buggy will be shown in the beginning of each chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Shanks, Buggy, Rayleigh, Roger or any other official One Piece character. They belong to Oda Eiichiro. I am not making money out of this. **

**Warnings: This story will have some blood, language and Male/Male relationships. **

**Finally, I want to thank those of you who has reviewed and favorited this story. I was really nervous when I first uploaded the first half of the first chapter. Knowing that someone actually liked it was... awesome. :) **

**Well then... Let's get this show on the road! **

1) Beginnings

Age: 11

/

In West Blue, there's a small island called Carnibal Island. On this island there are no forests, rivers or mountains. There's only a big city called Carnibal Town. It is said to be a city of delight, where everyone is doing merrymaking through day and night, and no one is ever bored. It's a well known tourist spot and trading post in the West Blue and the 'must go to'-place for everyone living or visiting that part of the world.

This is the place where Shanks met Buggy for the first time.

/

'Where did they go?'

Shanks looked around in confusion. He had only stopped for a second to look at this _really _cool guy (he was juggling _burning_ knives!) and already his crew-mates had been swallowed up by the crowd.

'Oh crap! I lost them! Rayleigh-san is gonna tan my hide for this!'

He took of running down the street in order to catch up with his crew-mates, but that hope was promptly dashed, since the street suddenly opened up to a huge plaza packed with people. After a few seconds of panicking and whipping his head around trying to catch a glimpse of his friends, the red-haired, strawhat-wearing eleven-year-old sighed.

'Oh well, no use panicking. It can't be that hard to get back to the ship -'

At that moment a small troupe consisting of three bicycling clowns, two pretty girls in glittering uniforms doing cartwheels and somersaults, and a small elephant being ridden by a monkey in conductor-suit passed right by Shanks and continued down the street he had come from. He looked after them in awe, and then took a closer look at his surroundings.

Ever since they had gotten to Carnibal Island, Shanks had been confined at the ship, since he was, and this he could quote Rayleigh-san on, "far too air-headed to be allowed to wander around in this kind of neighborhood". In fact, the only reason why he was in town in the first place was because all hands had been needed to restock the ship's food storage and neither Rayleigh-san nor Captain Roger wanted to leave Shanks all alone on the ship.

They had given him three orders: "Don't get separated from us", "Keep your eyes straight ahead" and "If you DO get separated from us, go straight back to the ship". And he had followed their orders to the letter. Until now.

But looking at his surroundings, Shanks could not imagine what made them so jumpy. This place was amazing! He had thought that the guy juggling with the swords and the troupe of circus-artists walking by him were exceptions, but he could not have been more wrong.

Clowns, performers, salesmen yelling about their wares, women advertising for bars and restaurants, and among all these were the tourists. Everywhere he turned there were people in brightly colored clothes shouting, laughing and singing.

Then there were the animals. Monkeys, dogs, horses, more elephants of the same kind he saw earlier and even a big tiger in a cage.

Combine this with all the bright colors coming from the spotlights hanging above the plaza and the mouthwatering smells coming from the restaurants and the food stands, and it was enough to capture the redhead's complete attention.

Slowly but surely a mischievous grin spread over the Shank's face.

He knew that if he simply returned to the ship, Rayleigh-san would ground him for the rest of their stay, not to mention the chew-out he would get for getting separated from his crew-mates. Since he was going to get in trouble anyway, why not enjoy his freedom while it lasted?

Having convinced himself of the logic behind his coming actions the way only an eleven-year-old can, Shanks ran into the plaza. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched.

/

Shanks had had a blast. He didn't have enough money to watch the in-door shows or eat in a fancy restaurant but there were plenty enough street-performers to keep him entertained for hours. Having just watched someone pull their body through a small metal ring, he was reminded that he had not eaten for a while when his stomach suddenly growled. Shanks looked up at the sky and noticed that it was growing darker.

"It will probably be dark soon. I guess I have to go back. _Aah-ah, _Rayleigh-san is gonna scold me for sure-"

A grin lit up on his face.

"-but it was worth it. Now then, I'm just gonna get something to eat, then it's back to the ship."

He was a little surprised that his crew-mates hadn't dragged him back yet. As far as he knew, both Rayleigh-san and Captain Roger had very powerful Observation Haki, so at least _they_ should

His eyes caught a vendor selling grilled octopuses and he immediately rushed over.

"Oh, that smells SO good! Hey old man, how much for the big one?" he asked, pointing at a stick holding a big, grilled octopus.

"Tha' will cost ya 25 Belis, kid. Ya buyin' them fer ya folks?" the vendor asked with a smile.

"Nope, that one's all mine." Shanks answered with a wide grin.

"Oh-hoh, izzat so? Tell ya what, I'll sell a big one an' a medium one fer 35 Belis. Deal?"

"Deal!" Shanks beamed at the vendor, who laughed kindly in return.

He had just pulled his wallet out from his pants, when a small explosion rocked the plaza and people started screaming in fright. Suddenly the air was filled with smoke that shifted colors every few seconds. Shanks' eyes teared up and he started to cough. He could hear the other people around him doing the same.

'Damn it! Can't see... Can... barely breathe...'

In that moment Shanks felt someone snatch his wallet from his limp grasp and a shadow passing him by. Suddenly, the fact that he couldn't see or breathe well became minor annoyances.

"HEY, YOU!"

He took of running in the same direction as the shadow, who seemed to be perfectly fine in the smoke. Shanks knew that if he didn't stop the shadow, it would soon disappear, so he did the first thing he could think of.

He threw himself at it.

He collided with the shadow and they both went down.

"GIVE ME BACK MY WALLET!"

"OW! LET GO OF ME!"

After a lot of struggling, Shanks finally managed to pin the shadow down. Slowly, the smoke started to dissipate and Shanks finally got a look at the person who had the guts to try and rob him.

He was about Shanks' age and was wearing dirty rags that once upon a time might have been red or orange, but was now so washed up and dirty that they had faded to light brown. Around his neck was a light green handkerchief, that he had probably used to prevent the brightly colored smoke from getting in his lungs. Beside him lay a pair of goggles. Longish, azure colored hair were being held back in a short ponytail, with two tufts of bangs hanging in front of his face. But the one thing that stood out most with the boy was that he had a big, red nose.

Just like a clown.

"Buggy's down!"

"Just leave 'im!"

Hearing the voices, Shanks glanced up to see that there were more kids coming out of the rapidly disappearing smoke and running towards the streets, away from the plaza. They must have robbed the other people that had been taken by surprise by the smoke. Oh well, not much he could do about them.

The one pinned under him, on the other hand...

"Looks like your friends abandoned you," Shanks told him with a smirk.

The clown snarled, "They are not my friends. And besides-" Suddenly, the clown drove a knee into Shanks stomach, which made the redhead release him with a gasp and a curse. The clown quickly got to his feet and got in a fighting stance. "-I don't need their help to beat a flashy wimp like you into the ground."

Shanks grit his teeth to ward of the pain from his stomach, stood up and mirrored his opponent's stance. "I would like to see you try, big-nose."

At those words the clown practically flew at Shanks in his fury. "WHO ARE YOU SAYING HAS A BIG RED NOSE?!"

They collided in a flurry of fists. The people surrounding them all looked on in shock. No one seemed eager to get in between the two furiously fighting boys.

"Dear, stop them! They might kill each other!" a wealthy looking woman implored her husband after seeing the clown give the redhead boy a right hook to the jaw, and the redhead answering with a left hook to the clown's stomach

Her husband looked at his wife with disbelief. "D-d-don't be ridiculous, woman! If I get in between those two, I will get pummeled too..."

Suddenly a voice spoke up from behind them. "Looks like we found our errant cabin boy."

The couple quickly turned around and were met with a group of about thirteen strong looking men. Leading the group were two men, one of them a tall, curly haired blond with a scar over his right eye and dark-haired beard formed in a stripe-like pattern, wearing round glasses and a dark-blue coat. The other man, who was the one who had spoken, was tall, with raven hair hidden under a captains hat with a Jolly Roger on it, a great, black, curved mustache and wearing a deep red coat.

It was obvious that these guys were pirates.

The two boys had abruptly stopped fighting when they heard the mans strong voice and were now just standing with each of their right hands grabbing their opponent's shirt. Of course, Shanks immediately recognized the men. "Captain! Rayleigh-san!"

"I told you he wouldn't return to the ship by himself, Roger. Looks like your little experiment failed," the blond told the black-haired man, all the while starring disappointingly at Shanks.

The captain laughed and slapped a big hand down on the blond's shoulder.

"Aw relax, Rayleigh! We had to try sometime. And it looks like he's been having fun and doesn't look too worse for wear. I say all's well that ends well!"

Rayleigh turned to his captain with exasperation written all over his face. "Roger, you're too soft on the kid. He disobeyed a direct order, the least you can do as a captain is scold him."

Roger gave up another laugh. "Fine, fine, he will get a punishment when we get back to _The West Wind_. But right now-" The tall man started walking towards the two boys. The people in his path swiftly made way for him. Even though the man seemed jovial, he was still a pirate.

He stopped before the two boys. "So? What's this about, Shanks?"

At that the boys let go and glared at each other. Shanks answered his captain without taking his eyes of his opponent. "Nothing I can't handle, Captain." At this the clown scoffed and Shank's glare intensified. "This guy robbed me. I'm just getting my wallet back."

Captain Roger actually looked surprised. "Hooh? He managed to steal from you? Not bad." While Shanks was silently fuming that his captain had actually _praised_ the clown, Roger turned to the blue-haired boy. "To be able to steal the wallet from our Shanks, I'm impressed! But... that boy is part of my crew, which means that his business is my business."

The captain's grin widened until it looked like it would split his face. "Are you ready to pay the consequences for stealing from my comrade or are you going to give back his money? Either way is fine with me."

The clown had frozen to the spot the moment the tall man had addressed him, and was now staring at him with a mixture of paralyzing fear and admiration. Slowly he reached into his pocket, pulled out Shank's wallet and threw it at the redhead. Shanks caught it with one hand.

The captain now turned to Shanks. "Well, Shanks? Shall we let bygones be bygones?" The redhead looked at his captain with a little bit of annoyance, but then he closed his eyes, smiled and shrugged. "Fine, if you say so, Captain."

The two of them had just started walking back to the rest of the waiting crew when the blue-haired kid's stomach started growling, much to the clown's embarrassment. Roger laughed and turned to the blue-haired kid once more. "Here." He flipped a gold-coin from his hand. The coin flew through the air until it landed at the clown's feet. "You're hungry, right? Go buy something to eat."

At once the fear, admiration and embarrassment in the clown's eyes disappeared and were replaced with fury. He picked up the gold-coin and flung it back yelling, "Keep your flashy coin!"

Shanks and Roger both stared at the clown with disbelief. The other townspeople also turned their eyes towards the blue-haired kid, who was panting with exertion after his outburst. He then took a deep breath and resumed his yelling, "Who do you think I am?! I'm the man who will gain all the treasures in the world, THE GREAT BUGGY! If I wanted your frickin' coin I would have stolen it in such flashily brilliant way that you would have been blinded in the process, old man! AND YOU, REDHEAD!" He snapped his hand up and pointed towards Shanks. "Our fight isn't over. I will become a pirate, find you and finish this! DON'T YOU DARE FORGET!"

With those words he turned around and dashed through the crowds towards one of the smaller streets, and had soon disappeared from sight.

A few seconds of silence followed his departure, then Roger threw his head back and laughed. "HAHAHAHA! What a gutsy kid! Hey Rayleigh, what do you think? Should we be watching our backs in the future?" the captain asked his first-mate with a wide grin.

His first-mate, on the other hand, had a small frown on his face. "That is if he is even lives to get to sea."

At that Rogers grin swiftly fell away. "What do you mean?"

Rayleigh took a sip from his flask and then wiped his lips with the back of his hand. "You saw it too, right, Captain? His clothes were nothing but rags and given how thin his face was, he probably hasn't had a proper meal for a long while, yet he seems to have obvious skills as a thief. If he's that good at stealing, he should have no problem keeping himself well feed. Unless of course-"

"-Someone else is getting the spoils." Roger heaved a sigh. "I see what you mean. Depending on what kind of person it is that is taking care of him, he might never get the freedom to do what he wants."

Rayleigh directed a searching look towards his captain. "Do you want to do something about him?"

Roger seemed to consider the proposition, but then he shook his head. "No, leave him. There is no reason for us to get involved. Still, he was an interesting kid." Roger and Rayleigh started walking back towards the rest of the crew.

The crowd jumped as one of the crew-members growled, "Hey, people! The shows over, move along already!" They quickly obeyed and soon the plaza was as lively as it had been before. But Shanks was still not moving.

Roger noticed that Shanks had yet to accompany them, so he turned and yelled, "OI, Shanks! Come on, we're going back to the ship! You still have a punishment to receive!"

The redhead flinched and faced the first mate. "I know, I know! I'm coming!"

He ran to his crew-mates, but during their way back the ship, Shanks could not resist the urge to turn his head a few times and look back to where the other boy had disappeared.

/

Having finally found an abandoned alley he could hide in, Buggy leaned against the dirty wall, panting in both exertion and fury.

Buggy was so furious that he felt like he could catch on fire. It was so frickin' unfair! Why was that flashy redhead bastard a pirate and not him?! And he was even part of a pretty awesome looking crew at that.

When the captain spoke to him, he nearly turned tail and ran. It was only through sheer stubbornness and pride that he managed to ignore the instinct. Of course, once the captain threw the gold-coin to him in pity, his temper had flared up and he just had to frickin' challenge the captain and his crew. At least they had been too surprised to act before he ran away. He was sure that they would have killed him for mouthing off at their captain.

But that redhead...!

"IT'S NOT FAIR!" He smashed his curled up fist into a nearby wall and then winced. The pain in his hand broke through the angry haze and as he cradled his damaged hand, the anger was slowly replaced by depression.

'What's so special about that flashy bastard that he gets to be in pirate crew? He's the same age as I am and I hadn't planned to become a pirate for at least another six years. That's how long it's probably gonna take me to gather the money for... Oh crap, the money!'

Buggy shook his head violently from side to side. 'Dammit! This is not the time be thinking about that redhead! I need to hurry and get the money before... What time is it anyway?'

He walked out from the alley into a bigger street and looked around for a clock-tower. When he saw what time it was, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. 'WHAT?! 10 O'CLOCK?! I ONLY HAVE 2 HOURS?!' He shook his head again. 'Nononononono. Calm down, calm down. There's still time. If I can find someone with a heavy wallet, I should still be in the clear.'

He took a deep breath. 'Here goes.' He took off running down the street in search of someone who fit the bill.

/

"You're saying Buggy was captured?" A man in his thirties asked the group of kids that stood before him. He was a short-haired blonde wearing a dark- and light-green striped suit. Beside him stood two beefy looking men wearing dark glasses and black suits, and a third man in a white suit wearing a slimy smile.

Standing in front of the men were a large group of children. There were about fifteen of them in ages between 8 and 14. They were all boys and were all wearing old, washed out, dirty clothes. Many of them looked half-starved. The one in the lead was a 14 year old black-haired boy who was missing an ear.

"Yeah, that's what I'm sayin', Mr. Fabioli." the boy answered. "Tried to help him, we did, but there were too many o' them. Right guys?" The other boys nodded their confirmation, some more enthusiastically than others.

The blonde in the green suit, Mr Fabioli, only sighed. "A damn shame that is. He was one of my best. He will be sorely missed." He then clapped his hands together. "Well then, boys! I believe it is time for the collecting! Everyone hand over what they have managed to get a hold on this week!"

One by one, the boys went forward and placed their stolen goods in separate piles before Fabioli. The tall blonde nodded to the man in the white suit, who then started to examine the different piles and making notes in his notebook. The tension was thick among the boys, which is why everyone jumped a mile in the air when there was a sudden 'bang' at the storage entrance.

The two men in black turned towards Fabioli. He gave them a slight nod, which they returned, each drawing a big knife from their holsters and making their way towards the door. But before they got there, one of the doors opened and in walked Buggy. He cast a look around the storage and grinned. "Well, it looks like I arrived right on time!"

The other boys were shocked for a few seconds before some of the younger ones rushed forward to greet Buggy, with exclamations of his name being mixed with rapid questions on how he escaped and where he had been. The older boys stood back, glowering at the clown.

When Mr Fabioli clapped his hands together to get their attention, the younger boys scattered away from Buggy and let him move forward towards the green-clad man. Fabioli smiled wryly at the boy. "Buggy... I heard you had been captured."

Buggy only scoffed in answer. "It was ONE guy, and he didn't 'capture' me, he just noticed when I picked his pocket and made a fuss about it. But it's all been taken care of. So..." He pulled out a big bag from under his shirt and tossed it up and down in his right hand. "Where should I put my share?"

"Ba ha ha ha ha! You always were my favorite, Buggy! I will forgive you for being late this time! However..." A dangerous light was in his eyes. "-if you haven't been able to make the quota it will be another issue entirely. I hope you're prepared for that, Buggy."

Buggy only grinned in response. "Heh. The day I can't make the quota, you may boil me, roast me, do whatever the hell you like with me. If I can't even get this done, my pride as a thief will be tarnished."

Fabioli examined the boy who stood before him. "You have a way with words, as always. Very well, place your loot by the others and we will see."

Buggy did so, and then turned to stand among the other boys that were gathered there. The man in the white suit continued his assessment and was soon finished with the last pile. Fabioli turned his head towards him. "Well, Dingo?"

Dingo turned his slimy smile towards Fabioli. "It seems that all the boys have made the quota for this week, Master Fabioli, even if some were just over the limit."

Fabioli nodded, pleased with the news and then said, "You have done well, boys. Now you may go. Eat, sleep, celebrate, and continue your good work. I will come back next week for the next rent. See you then." The four men made their way towards the entrance and exited the storage.

As soon as the door had closed behind the men, Buggy said, "Well, this has been a flashily exhausting day, I'm going to sleep," before making his way towards the stairs.

"Wait, Buggy!"

Buggy stopped and turned towards the one calling out. It was the one-eared boy. "You still have a lot of explaining to do! How did you get away from those guys?"

Buggy smiled darkly. "'Those guys'? The way I remember it, that redhead kid was the only one confronting me in the beginning. Could it be that you stuck around to watch the show, maybe see if I got arrested or lynched?" The silence from the black-haired boy said enough. "How cruel. One might think that you don't like me."

"That's because I DON'T like you," the black-haired boy snarled at Buggy. The other boys were casting nervous glances between the two boys, expecting them to start fighting any second.

But Buggy only answered the boy's snarl with a smirk. "What's wrong, Alfredo? It can't be that you're jealous, can it? I don't blame you. With my flashily superior skills in stealing you must be feeling put down. But don't worry, with a lot more work, you might even be a considered rival some day."

For each word the clown spoke, the boy called Alfredo became more and more red with anger and when Buggy finally finished insulting him, Alfredo was so red with fury that it would have been possible to fry an egg on his forehead.

As soon as Buggy turned to continue walking up the stairs, Alfredo lunged for him, but was held back by the other boys. They knew that despite the difference in age and body mass, Buggy was the better fighter of the two, and always had a knife stashed on him to protect him from bigger foes, and he was a pro at using it.

Alfredo knew this too, he was just too angry to remember it at the moment.

"YOU JUST WAIT, BUGGY! ONE OF THESE DAYS YOUR LUCK IS GONNA RUN OUT AND YOU'LL GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU! WHEN THAT HAPPENS, I'LL BE THERE AND I'LL LAUGH IN YOUR FACE AS YOU CRAWL IN THE DIRT! YOU HEAR ME?!"

As Buggy walked up the stairs he could hear Alfredo continue to curse and yell behind him and the voices of the other boys trying to calm the furious one-eared boy down.

/

Rayleigh was ripped away from his concentration as someone suddenly knocked on his door.

It couldn't be Roger. He always kept clear whenever Rayleigh was doing the inventory in fear of being roped into doing something he considered to be extremely boring. And more importantly, he would _never_ knock on the door.

"Come in", he said. The door opened slowly and revealed the late visitor to be Shanks in his night clothes, shifting from foot to foot.

"Um... Rayleigh-san? Can I talk with you for a minute?"

Rayleigh sighed and put down his feather-pen. "You should be in bed by now, Shanks." The boy looked down on the ground at the scolding tone of his vice-captain.

Rayleigh considered the boy standing in front of him before continuing, "Alright, but only for a minute. I still have work to do before I can go to sleep..." He looked sternly at the boy, "...which is exactly what you will do after we're done here, got it?"

Shanks nodded vigorously and Rayleigh's tone became softer. "Now then... What's this about?"

Shanks released a breath a didn't know he was holding and sunk down into the chair closest to him.

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Yes, go on."

"When you and the captain found me, you were talking about a test. What was that about?"

Rayleigh was silent for a moment before sighing, again. He had hoped that the kid would wait to ask that question until tomorrow. He was far too tired for this. But when had anyone in this crew ever made anything easy for him?

"When we noticed that you had become separated from us, I wanted to go find you immediately, but Roger stopped me. He wanted to see if you would follow the orders we had given you, even if we weren't around to enforce them. Roger was hoping that you would, but me? I kind of figured you wouldn't."

He smiled softly at the hurt expression on Shanks' face. "Shanks... you're simply too young and curious, and sometimes you forget to think about the consequences of your actions. With the power you have, those traits can become dangerous, both for you and people surrounding you. We left you on purpose to see how you would react. Unfortunately, you failed."

Shanks jumped up from his seat. "But nothing happened! Well, in the end something happened, but that was hours after I had lost you guys!" he protested.

"Yes... _Hours after_. Even though we expressively told you to go back to the ship if you got separated from us. And just because nothing serious happened this time, who's to say it won't happen the next time? What if there had been Marines? Or other pirates? Or anyone else that wants to hurt you?"

Shanks clenched his hands into fists. "I would have run away. I'm not as stupid as you seem to think."

Rayleigh leaned forward with a grim expression. "And what if, in the future, we expect you to follow an order and you don't, and a crew-mate dies because of it? Did you ever think about that, Shanks?"

Shanks froze in place. He hadn't thought that far. The thought that one of his crew-mates could die just because he had defied orders... For some reason, the clown's face flashed through his mind.

"But... but... I was just having fun... It wasn't like we were in a battle or anything."

"Shanks... People die just as much on good days as they do on bad days. Please remember that."

The red-haired boy looked down at his feet, the straw-hat shielding his eyes from Rayleigh. He could see the boy tremble.

"...I'm sorry."

Rayleigh rose from his seat and took hold of Shanks' shoulders, making him look up into his eyes. "As long as you learn from this experience, it's fine. But you're not to set foot on this island anymore, okay? That's your punishment for failing the test."

He clapped the boy on the shoulder and grinned encouragingly. "Hey, keep your shin up, Shanks. You're a kid, you're supposed to screw up so you can learn to be a better adult."

Shanks glared up at him, annoyed but much less sad than before. "Gee, thanks Rayleigh-san." He suddenly yawned loudly, making Rayleigh laugh.

"Go on to bed, Shanks."

Shanks nodded tiredly and after saying a sleepy goodnight to his vice-captain, he went out of the room, closing the door behind him.

As he did, the small smile he was wearing slipped off and he sighed. He could feel the weight of failure on his shoulders and knew that the punishment he had received was fair.

His gaze went towards the shore where the lights was still going strong and probably would for the rest of the night. The city that never sleeps. That was Carnibal Town.

He suddenly wondered where the boy he had meet was right now. Was he sleeping somewhere safe? Was he out there among the night-crawlers?

He shook his head in annoyance. 'What the heck's up with me? Why do I keep thinking about him? I should be more concerned about how to make up for my screw-up today.' He growled and stomped off towards his sleeping place. He figured that a good night's sleep would clear his mind of the other boy.

But it didn't.

/

_The next day..._

"SHAAAANKS! WHERE ARE YOU, BOY?!"

The crew-mates of _The West Wind _cringed when they heard the furious voice of the first-mate and saw him coming towards them. "Howard. Where is Shanks?" Rayleigh asked one of the men while grinding his teeth.

Howard, a big broad-shouldered blonde man of 24, looked confused. "Isn't he in the cabin?" A hard look from the first-mate made Howard revise his words. "I-I mean, neither of us have seen him since you told him that he was to stay put in there."

Rayleigh looked at each of the men, looking for any sign of deception. When he saw none, he sighed and muttered to himself, "Damn it Shanks, I thought that you knew better after yesterday." He then addressed four of the crew-members standing in front of him. "He seems to have gotten off the ship without anyone noticing. Howard, Bane, Mikken, Sleigh – I want the four of you to go into town and look for the brat. If you find him, get him back to the ship immediately, I don't care if you have to carry him. Understood?"

The four mentioned men gave a quick nod towards Rayleigh and set off towards the town. The ship had barely left their sight when Bane turned towards his shipmates. "This is stupid."

Mikken rolled his eyes. "Here we go again..."

Bane glared at Mikken, and considering the man was over six feet tall with tan skin, unruly short black and dark green eyes, he cut a pretty intimidating picture. Normally anyone being subjected to Bane's glare would have cowered away, but Mikken, who answered his glare with a smirk and a challenging glint in his eyes, had known Bane all his life and knew how to handle him. With his short build, fair complexion and blonde hair, Mikken looked the complete opposite of Bane.

No one would ever guess that they shared the same parents.

"You wanna say something, Mikken?" Bane growled at his brother.

"I do, actually: Stop. Complaining. Every time the captain or Rayleigh-san gives us orders to take care of Shanks or include him in our past-time, you always grumble like an old man and I'm sick of it." Mikken answered with no hesitation.

Bane huffed. "Well, excuse me if I thought that being a pirate was about sailing the seas, fighting the Navy and finding treasure, not babysitting a freaking useless kid who can't follow simple orders."

Mikken's smirk fell away and now he just looked annoyed. "You know that's not true. Shanks is pulling his weight as much as can be expected from an eleven-year-old and you know that the captain wouldn't have taken him under his wing if the kid didn't have potential."

"But he's still a kid!" Bane growled and muttered to himself. "I freaking HATE kids."

Howard noticed that people around them were starting to look at them funny. "Knock it off, you two! You're drawing attention to us."

Bane and Mikken completely ignored him and continued with their bickering. Before Howard could repeat himself, Sleigh stepped forward, raised both his hands and slapped the two brothers on their heads. "That's enough of that. Bane, no matter what your personal opinion is, Rayleigh ordered us to find the kid, so that's exactly what we're gonna do. Unless you want to explain to Rayleigh why you can't follow a simple order?"

Bane flushed in anger for having his own words turned against him, yet he didn't say a word in protest. Sleigh was a little shorter than Bane and thirty years older, but he was the most experienced sailor in the crew seeing as he had been traveling on the seas since he was a little boy. Having only lost his right eye and ear during his years traveling on the Grand Line, the rest of the crew, even Rayleigh and Captain Roger, held a great deal of respect for the old man. Whenever he talked, you listened.

Bane turned with a huff and continued walking down the street. Mikken flashed an apologetic grin to Sleigh and hurried after his brother. Sleigh was about to go after them when Howard spoke up behind him. "It's strange, isn't it?"

"What is?"

Howard was fidgeting from one foot to another. "Well... Shanks isn't an idiot. He most have known how furious Rayleigh would become if he sneaked out, especially after yesterday. And it's not like he's the kind of person to make people angry deliberately, he hates it when people are mad at him. So why did he sneak out in the first place?"

Sleigh had been asking himself that same question, but since he didn't have an answer to it, he just turned and continued walking after Bane and Mikken. "Let's go. We'll never find the kid if we stand around talking all day."

Howard still wore a brooding expression, but hurried after his senior crew-mate. 'I guess I'll just have to ask Shanks when we find him.'

/

Rayleigh entered Roger's cabin with a huff. "That kid is going to give me gray hairs!"

Roger looked up at his friend with a wide smile. "Something wrong, Rayleigh?"

"Of course there's something wrong!" Rayleigh was pacing in front of desk and Roger was following his movements with a sly glint in his eyes. "Shanks managed to get off the ship without me noticing! I thought that I had gotten through to him yesterday, I thought that he understood the importance of following orders, of accepting punishment for doing the wrong thing! But that obviously went right over his head!"

He broke up his rant with a groan and slapped his forehead. He could already feel a migraine creeping up behind his eyes. "I don't get how he could have evaded my Observation Haki! Even now, I can't sense him no matter how much I try! I can't even tell if he's on the island or not!"

"He's in the northwest district, about 300 meters from the shore."

Rayleigh stopped abruptly and turned his head slowly towards Roger, who by now was almost shaking with mirth. "You bastard... You knew!"

Roger couldn't hold himself any more and laughed raucously. "HAHAHAHA! Of course I knew! I've known about it since the brat got off the ship!"

Rayleigh crossed his arms and glared at his captain with a glowering expression. "Stop laughing! If you can sense him, why can't I?"

Roger just smirked. "Because my Observation Haki is stronger than yours." His friend's glare intensified. "Don't make that face, we both know it's true."

He leaned back on his chair and gestured for Rayleigh to sit down. "I have felt his Haki fluctuating ever since yesterday. About an hour ago it stabilized and he sneaked off the ship. It seems he made a decision about something."

Rayleigh did not look satisfied with that answer. "That does not explain why I can't sense him. You say that you can sense him because of our difference in power of our Hakis, but that shouldn't make any difference. He's just a kid."

"He's not doing it on purpose. His Haki is shielding him."

Rayleigh's eyes widened.

Roger sighed. "Remember when we picked him up? He was ostracized from his village because he was making people faint and breaking stuff without touching them whenever he became upset, which had happened a lot ever since his mother died. We both knew what that meant even though the villagers didn't, that Shanks possesses the Conqueror's Haki."

Rayleigh nodded impatiently. He knew all this. Both he and Roger had been shocked to find a kid with such raw potential and had decided to take him with them before the Navy found out about him. He had been happy to go with them, but he would not let neither Roger nor Rayleigh train him to control his Haki, much to their frustration. With the villagers treating him like he was a monster, Shanks had become afraid of his own power.

But, and here Rayleigh smiled in remembrance, the boy had grown on them both, especially Roger, who had given Shanks the straw-hat that he had been wearing for as long as Rayleigh had known him. They had decided to give him time to come to terms with his powers and since their pirate crew was a pretty strong-willed bunch, the few times Shanks lost his temper didn't result in anyone fainting.

Shanks' Haki had remained simmering under the surface. Until now.

"When he left, he was probably thinking, 'I hope they don't find me' or, 'I want to do this on my own'. His Haki must have reacted to that and is now shielding him from unwanted eyes. I know I said I can sense him, but it's only barely."

"Can his Haki really do such a thing?"

"As long as it remains in that raw form, yes. It's strong enough to act without his say so and the Conqueror's Haki overwhelms the will of other beings, so if Shanks does not want to be found, his Haki will make sure that he's not."

The first-mate finally seemed convinced and sighed heavily. "I'll have to get on the Little Den Den Mushi to tell Howard and the others where the brat is, and when he gets back we're going to have a long talk with him about training his Haki. We can't put it off any longer." He frowned at his captain. "There's still one thing I don't get. What exactly is the kid doing that he wouldn't want anyone to find out? Did he want to take another look at the island?"

Roger grinned. "No, I'm pretty positive that he found something yesterday that managed to catch his attention completely."

"Like what?" Slowly, the frown was replaced with a look of understanding. "...Ah. So that's how it is." He shook his head in annoyance. "That kid really does whatever he feels like, doesn't he?"

Roger simply laughed.

/

"Atchooo!"

Buggy sneezed and then wiped his nose on his shirt, to the disgust of the couple walking past him.

'Am I getting a cold? Doesn't feel that way. Someone must be talking about me. Probably Alfredo ranting about how flashily jealous he is of my skills!' He snickered to himself.

Buggy had never cared to make any friends among the other boys working for Fabioli, but he and Alfredo had been downright antagonistic towards each other ever since Buggy joined the Fabioli group. Alfredo had been the top dog of the bunch and Fabioli's favorite, but when Buggy arrived with his thieving skills, street-smarts and overall charisma, that honor had been swiftly bestowed on him, much to Alfredo chagrin.

'He probably thinks that I'm doing it to gain favor from Fabioli. Idiot~! I just want that creepy bastard off my back. A few more years and I can say goodbye to this crappy island.' He thought about his private treasure horde that he had managed to gather together during these past two years. By taking a part of his loot to the side each week (but never enough that it would make Fabioli suspicious of him) he had slowly but surely gathered a larger sum of Belis and hidden it under the floors in an abandoned house in the northern district.

He knew what he was doing was dangerous, since Fabiolio would kill anyone holding out on him, but Buggy also knew that if he was ever to be free from the man, then he would need money to buy a ship. And then he would become a pirate and steal money from all the rich people and never be hungry and never take orders from anyone again!

And he would do this all by himself. He didn't want anyone else's help, because people always wanted something in return, and he would never fall in that trap again.

"_Remember this, Buggy. The strong decides the fate of the weak. So be strong, Buggy. Strong enough that you never have to depend on anyone's mercy."_

"_How could you?! I thought you loved me!"_

"_Run... Buggy..." _

"_You poor boy, you must be starving. Come here, let me buy you something."_

"_Here's the deal, kid. I'll give you a house to live in, bed to sleep in and food on the table everyday. All you need to do is to pay me a certain amount of money once a week. Now doesn't that sound like a good deal?"_

Memories he would like nothing more than to forget flashed through his mind. His mother had been weak. He had been weak. But he would get stronger, by himself. He would _never_ put his trust in another human being again.

He shook his head again; he didn't have time for this. Yesterday's incident with the pirates had resulted in him not getting as much money for his own treasure horde as he would have liked, so this week he had to get a move on if he wanted to make progress.

Thinking about the pirates automatically made him think of the redhead he had been fighting. 'I swear, if I see that flashy bastard again I will end him. How dare he say that about my nose...?' His jealousy of the redhead was still going strong and the mere thought of him made Buggy want to hit something.

In that moment he saw a group of tourists that he immediately zoomed in on. It was better to rob groups than it was to rob people one by one. They were easier since they were more relaxed and if you managed to steal more than one wallet, it was more profitable as well.

'No fancy stuff. I just need to get up to them, get their wallets and walk past them. Won't be a problem with those flashy bags. Jeez, they're practically begging for someone to rob them.' He started walking towards them. 'Nice and relaxed. Don't mind me, I'm just a clown taking a walk. Slowly, slowly...'

He had just started to reach his hand towards the first bag when someone suddenly spoke behind him. "You said your name was Buggy, right?" Buggy was so surprised that he tripped over his own feet and stumbled into the tourist he was just about to rob. The tourist turned to him with a sneer and told him to watch where he was going. Knowing that his chance to rob them was gone, he apologized and backed away. When the group had left, he turned around and glared coldly at the person who had disturbed him in his work. He knew who it was, of course. Not like he could have forgotten _THAT_ voice in just one day.

"What do you want, ginger? I'm working here."

The boy with the red hair returned his glare. "You mean stealing."

"Same thing." Buggy looked annoyed. "Don't act all high and mighty with me, brat. You're a pirate, you must steal things all the time."

The redhead looked at him for a moment before snorting. "Fair enough. My name is Shanks, by the way, not brat."

"I don't care what your name is, redhead. What do you want?"

The boy called Shanks grinned widely. "I want to finish what we started yesterday."

Buggy looked surprised for a moment before the annoyance returned. "You want to have a fight? Here and now?" The redhead nodded. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm busy. Go bug someone else if you want to take a beating." He turned and started walking away.

"Didn't you say that you were gonna settle the score?" Buggy stopped walking. "Well, now you don't have to go out to sea to find me. I'm right here. Of course, if what you said was just you bragging and you're really nothing but a tomato-nosed chicken, then I don't blame you if you run away."

Buggy slowly, _slowly_ turned to face the other boy. His face was red and he had murder in his eyes. "What- _the hell-_ did-you-just-call-me?"

Shanks started moving towards him. "What, are you deaf now as well? TO-MA-TO-NOSED CHI-CKEN~. How a coward like you can even dream of becoming a pirate is beyond insulting to us real pirates!"

"THAT'S IT!" Buggy started running towards Shanks. "I'LL GIVE YOU THE BEATING OF YOUR LIFE!"

Shanks smirked and whispered to himself, "That's more like it."

/

"What? Is that true, Alfredo?"

"I swear on my life, Mr Fabioli."

"I see... Gather all the boys in the storage. You have two hours." The sound of a door opening and closing could easily be heard in the silent room.

"Enrico!"

"Yes, sir."

"Take Diego with you and search the city. Find Buggy. But don't hurt him just yet. I need him alive and well to make an example of what happens when trash tries to cheat me."

/

The two boys were standing opposite of each other, gasping and panting with exertion. They were both covered in bruises, Buggy's left eye was starting to swell and blood was running down Shanks' nose. Around them a crowd had gathered, some cheering them on, some simply looking on in horror.

"Have you... had enough yet... you... flashy bastard?" Buggy said between gasps. Shanks didn't answer him. He was just staring at him. Suddenly his shoulders started to shake and his gasps were replaced by snickering. Then, while Buggy was staring at him like he was insane, Shanks threw his head back and started laughing.

Buggy could not stand it. "What the hell are you laughing about?!"

Shanks stopped laughing, but kept smiling. He was looking at Buggy like he was made out of gold. "I knew it! I mean, I suspected it yesterday, but now I'm sure! You're not afraid of me in the least are you?! Even when I got angry at you and fought you and everything!"

"HUH?! Why the hell would I be afraid of you, you crazy bastard?!" This was getting too weird too fast for Buggy. They had just been beating the shit out of each other and now the redhead was spouting all kinds of nonsense.

Shanks continued to blabber, completely ignoring what Buggy had said. "And you haven't passed out either! I mean, no one in the crew ever passes out, but I've never met anyone in my age who didn't whenever I got angry!" He suddenly rushed forward and took a hold of Buggy's hands. "Do you wanna be part of our pirate crew?!"

Buggy stared at him, then he looked down at their hands and up again, before going red in the face and backing away from him. "What are you talking about?!"

But before Shanks could answer there was a clink by their feet. The two boys looked down and saw a canister.

"What the..."

"OH SHI..."

Suddenly, gas started leaking out of the canister, and after coughing a few times the boys started too feel sleepy. Buggy succumbed first with a curse on his lips and fell headlong on the ground before falling asleep. Shanks managed to hold on a little longer and was still aware when his feet went out under him and he fell to the ground. Around them people were screaming, running or falling down, but soon enough silence enveloped the two young fighters.

Two figures with masks stepped out from the smoke and stood above them.

"Waste of sleeping gas..."

"The Boss wanted... unharmed... be helped."

"Here's... kid. What do... with him?"

"Bring him... The Boss..."

That was all Shanks managed to hear before the sleepy feeling overwhelmed him.

'Captain... Rayleigh-san...'

/

Captain Roger suddenly went tense in his chair, as did Rayleigh sitting opposite of him.

"Did you...?"

"Yeah." A grim look was fixed upon the captain's face. He rose from his chair. "Rayleigh, get on the Den Den Mushi. Tell Howard and the others to met up with us in town. We're going."

Rayleigh also rose from his chair and nodded towards Roger. "Aye, Captain."

/

Buggy had a splitting headache, and by the look on Shank's face, he was willing to bet that the redhead wasn't feeling too hot either.

They had woken up about five minutes ago, and while Shanks looked around himself with confusion Buggy knew exactly where they were. They were at the warehouse he and other boys in the Fabioli group were living in. He could see their silhouettes on the staircase, but it was too dark to see them clearly. What he could see on the other hand was Fabioli's bodyguards, Diego and Enrico, standing before them in their black suits.

He tried to move his hands and feet but it was useless. Both he and Shanks had their feet chained together and their hands were bound behind their backs. He glowered at the bodyguards. "What is the meaning of this? Why did you chain me up? I haven't done anything!" The bodyguards didn't answer him and Buggy let his head drop with a huff.

"Hey, Buggy."

Buggy turned his head so that he could see the redhead, who was looking way too calm considering the situation. "You know these guys?"

For a second Buggy considered just ignoring the other boy, but...

"Yeah. They are the bodyguards of the guy I work for, Mr Fabioli."

"Any idea why they would wanna chain us up and bring us to this crappy warehouse?"

Buggy glared at the redhead (because, hey, he lived in that 'crappy warehouse'), but then he started thinking in the same line as Shanks. Why was he tied up like this, and more importantly, why on earth had they taken Shanks as well?

He didn't have time to muse about these questions however, as the door to the ware house opened and Fabioli went through the opening.

"I trust that the brat is secure."

"Yes sir. We have him in chains, as you ordered."

"Good, good." As he went up to the two lying face down on the floor, his eyes rested on Shanks. "And who is this?"

Diego stepped forward. "He was with Buggy when we found him. We decided to take him with us in case he was involved."

Buggy's brows furrowed in confusion. 'Involved? Involved in what?' But suddenly a suspicion started to form in his head and he could feel fear creeping up his spine. 'No... They couldn't have... I've been so careful... But it would make sense... Shit. Shitshitshitshit...'

His frenzied thoughts were stopped cold by a kick to the stomach. Fabioli sneered down at him with contempt. "You disappoint me Buggy. After everything I've done for you, this is how you repay me? I thought you were smarter than that."

Shanks' eyes widened when he saw Buggy's body spasm in pain and heard him scream. "O-oi... Buggy! Hey you! Blondie! What do think you're doing?! That's my future nakama you're kicking!"

Fabioli shifted his eyes to Shanks. "Huh? What are you talking about, brat? Buggy is my property, I can do whatever I want to him." He kneeled before Shanks and grabbed his chin with with his fingers. "Who are you, kid?"

Defiant black eyes without no fear what-so-ever met his blue ones. "Don't call me 'kid'. My name is Shanks. I'm part of the Roger Pirates. My captain is the greatest man to ever sail the seas – Gol D. Roger."

Fabioli snorted. "Bold words, for a squirt. A pirate, huh? And what do you want with my Buggy?"

"I've already told you: He's gonna be my nakama."

"Nakama? Buggy?" Fabioli started snickering. "You really are a horrible judge of character, kid. That brat is the most illoyal, backstabbing trash you will ever have the misfortune to meet." He let go of Shanks' chin and started moving towards Buggy. "It is because he's such a lying little shit that he's going to die, right here and right now. But first-"

He turned Buggy with his foot so that the clown was lying on his back before placing it on Buggy's ribs. "I'm going to make an example of you, Buggy. Your screams, your tears and you pleading to die will make sure that none of the other brats will never even think about cheating me. This is nothing more than you deserve, you thieving little punk. And after I'm done with you, I'm gonna deal with the little pirate. It doesn't seem like you and he was collaborating, but..." He huffed in annoyance. "...I simply despise pirates. Those unrefined ruffians are bad for business." He threw a glance at Shanks. "Nothing personal, kid. You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Buggy was shaking. He was going to die. He now knew that somehow Fabioli had managed to find out about the money he had been hording. But how the hell did he find out?!

Fabioli smirked. "I'm not an idiot, Buggy. I've suspected that you were hoarding money since three months back. I told the other boys to pay me visit if you ever did something suspicious and, lo and behold, this morning I had a visit from Alfredo, telling me that you always went to the same abandoned house in the northern district the day after the payment. He followed you with Dingo and some of my men, and after turning the house upside-down, they found the money hidden under the floors."

He put pressure on his foot and Buggy was starting to have problem breathing. "Crafty, Buggy. But nowhere near crafty enough to fool me." He lifted his leg, only to bring it down on Buggy's stomach again. And again. And again. And again.

Buggy accidentally bit his tongue and could now taste blood in his mouth. In the background he could hear the other boys cheering Fabioli on, the loudest of them being Alfredo. 'What the hell are you cheering about, you flashy idiots? As soon as you're no use to him he's gonna kill you too... Whatever... I don't care... Oh god, it hurts...'

"STOP!"

Both the cheering and beating stopped abruptly and over the painful rushing in his ears Buggy could hear bodies falling to the ground. He coughed and greedily sucked in air in his lungs before painfully rolling onto his side. He could see Diego and Enrico lying on the ground, and Shanks slowly crawling towards him. "Buggy! Are you hurt bad?"

Buggy could only stare at him. "Did you..." He coughed and felt blood slipping down his chin. "Was that you?"

Shanks nodded and his face took a guarded expression, "It's called Conqueror's Haki. Long story short, I sometimes make people faint just by being mad at them. I'm not exactly sure how it works, and honestly I'm not really interested to know." Suddenly his voice became more concerned. "Are you alright? He was really whaling on you."

Buggy shook his head, shaking off both the kindness and strangeness of the boy laying beside him. "Why do you care?"

Shanks looked at him with annoyance. "How many times do I have to say it?! Because you're gonna be my nakama!"

Buggy scoffed. "No, I'm not. Even if we managed to live through this, even if your crew-mates won't kill me for dragging one of their crew-mates into a mess like this, I wouldn't want to be your nakama. Get real! I don't need nakama! I won't trust anyone besides myself!"

His outburst made him start coughing again. He closed his eyes and tried to make his racing heart calm down.

"That's not going to happen."

He opened his eyes and was met with black eyes, full of conviction and unwavering confidence. "We're not going to die, because my captain and Rayleigh-san are gonna save us. They won't hurt you." Shanks let out a blinding smile. "Captain Roger is a sucker for kids and even though Rayleigh-san can be a bit scary sometimes, he's a good man. I trust them with my life, that means you can too."

Buggy stared in disbelief before scoffing again. "Aren't _you_ optimistic? As if I could trust the word of a flashy idiot like you." He tried to get his hands loose, but the chains were too tightly bound. "Damn it... Why did they have to chain us? Paranoid bastards..."

"Ugh..."

Buggy froze. That was Fabioli's voice. He couldn't be waking up already, could he? But it was just his luck, really, that not only Fabioli but Enrico and Diego had started to stir. He desperately wriggled his hand, trying to get it out of the chains. 'If only I could get these off!' He cast a glance at Shanks and to his frustration the redhead wasn't moving a muscle. 'Why isn't he trying to escape?!'

"What was that...?!" By now, Fabioli was standing shakily on his legs and glaring at the two boys. "You... what did you do?!"

"HIIIH! Quick, redhead! Make them faint again!"

"Can't."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'CAN'T'?! YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY PROBLEM DOING IT A FEW MINUTES AGO!"

"It's not something I can control. It just happens sometimes when I get upset or angry."

"SO GET UPSET!"

"Why? My nakama are gonna be here any moment now, and he's not hurting you anymore. I have no reason to be upset!"

"THEY ARE NOT COMING! THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE WE ARE, YOU IDIOT! IF YOU DON'T MAKE THEM FAINT WE'RE DEAD, YOU HEAR ME?! THERE'S A LIMIT ON HOW NAIVE YOU CAN GET, YOU FLASHY CARROTHEAD!"

"They'll come because that's what nakama does. You'll get what I mean when you're part of the crew!"

"YOU STILL SAYING THAT?!"

The sound of a pistol going off cut through their argument like a hot knife through butter. Fabioli was holding a smoking pistol aimed towards the roof, gnashing his teeth in fury. "Shut. Up. Enrico, Diego, get them on their feet."

After the bodyguards had gotten the boys up and were holding them, painfully, by the scruff of their necks, Fabioli aimed the pistol at Shanks. "I don't know what you did, boy. But it seems that it would be better to get rid of you first, so you don't pull that shit again." He cooked the hammer back. "Any last words, pirate?"

Shanks just looked at the blond mafia man for a moment before he suddenly smirked. "It's about time."

Fabioli looked confused. "What kind of -"

That was the moment when the warehouse door flew of its hinges and onto the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.

All gazes snapped towards the opened doorway. Loud, and to Shanks familiar, voices could be heard from outside.

"That was unnecessary, Captain."

"Don't care. I felt like making an entrance."

"Jeez, that kid is a freaking trouble-magnet."

"Bane, shut the hell up. You're sounding like an old man again."

"You think Shanks is alright?"

One by one, with the red-dressed captain in the lead, six of the Roger pirates filed into the warehouse until all of them had entered. Fabioli and his goons were staring in disbelief, Buggy's chin was basically on the floor, and Shanks...

Well, Shanks wasn't surprised at all.

Mikken took a look around and scoffed, twiddling with a knife in his left hand. "What, only three of them? This won't even be a challenge." That remark quickly got him a slap to the head from Sleigh.

"We won't do anything without the captain's say-so. Don't get ahead of yourself."

A telling glare from Rayleigh made the two of them go silent. He then shifted his focus on his captain. "By your command, Roger."

"Yeah." Roger took a couple of steps towards Fabioli before stopping. If Buggy had thought him impressive and scary the day before, it was nothing in comparison with how terrifying the man standing before them was now. Apparently he was not the only one who thought so, as he could feel Diego's hand shaking around around his neck. He could also see that the pistol Fabioli was holding was wobbling.

"Shanks, you're not hurt, are you?" He was talking to Shanks, but the captain's eyes never left Fabioli's form, nailing it to the ground, daring him to pull the trigger.

Shanks shook his head. "No, I'm fine. But Buggy got hurt."

"Buggy? ...Ah, the gutsy kid from before."

The captain took a deep breath. "Well then." In that moment something... happened.

Whenever Buggy would think back on this moment, he would always remember the three things that happened simultaneously. The sight of Fabioli falling, the feeling of something invisible moving around him and the sound of a thousand whispers.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion... until Buggy's head hit the ground and he realized that Diego must have passed out as well. "OW!"

Mutterings from Bane could be heard from behind Roger. "Tch, looks like we weren't needed this time. Hey Captain, can we just grab the kid and go? I'm getting sick of this town."

That was answered with a slap to the head from Sleigh. "Don't give the captain orders, brat."

Roger looked back at Rayleigh. "Get Shanks free from those chains. We're getting out of here."

"Aye, captain." As Rayleigh started moving towards Shanks, the captain meet the eyes of the clown-nosed boy who was starring at him like a mouse corned by a snake.

For two years he had been slaving under Fabioli. During those years he had seen the man cut throats, shot people in the head and bury people alive. Men, women and children. The man had been the ultimate symbol of cruelty, misery and imprisonment for Buggy. But now, that same tormentor was lying passed out on the floor with froth coming out of his mouth. This man who had haunted his nightmare for TWO YEARS had been beaten... without his opponent even touching him.

'This... this is the real thing... he's a real pirate... he's gonna kill me... I'm gonna die...' All the words of assurance from Shanks that his crew wouldn't harm him had fled his mind. In his terror all he could focus on was that the pirate standing before him was strong.

"_The strong decides the fates of the weak. So be strong, Buggy. Strong enough that you don't have to depend on anyone's mercy." _

'I'm sorry, mother. Looks like I was too weak again...' Buggy closed his eyes in defeat. All he could do was wait for his verdict.

Roger looked at the kid lying before him. With the exception for his blue hair and round red nose, he looked like a perfectly normal eleven-year-old. But since the day before there had been something nagging Roger about this kid, something that apparently Shanks had picked up on and had decided to investigate on his own. Now Roger could see why.

When he had used his Conqueror's Haki he had meant for it to knock out all but Shanks, and yet the blue-haired kid was still conscious. It was like the Haki hadn't even touched him.

Roger sat himself before Buggy, raised up his arm and covered it Armament Haki before slowly moving down towards his head. When his hand was about three inches from touching the boy's head, he saw his Armament Haki starting to dissipate. So he had been right. 'Fascinating.'

"Captain!" Shanks' voice shook him from his thoughts. He was standing beside Rayleigh, free from all the chains. "I want to bring Buggy with us. Please let him join our crew!"

Sounds of outrage came immediately from both Mikken and Bane.

"What the hell are you talking about, Shanks?! We don't even know him!"

"I REFUSE to have another kid running around on the ship. It's a pirate ship, not a freaking orphanage!"

Howard was too stunned by Shanks' words to say anything, while Sleigh and Rayleigh were simply standing with their arms crossed, waiting for their captain's response.

Roger looked into Shanks' eyes and saw the same determination that had moved him to give his beloved hat to the kid. He had seen how wistful Shanks would become whenever they were in port and children could be seen playing and running around with each other. Despite assuring he was alright when asked about it, Roger knew that the redhead, more than anything, wished for a friend.

He also knew that Shanks wouldn't let this go, now that he had found someone in his own age he could interact with, without worrying about hurting him with his haki.

Roger refocused his gaze on Buggy, who hadn't moved at all during the entire conversation.

"Well, kid? What do _you_ say?" Buggy's eyes snapped up to met his gaze. "You did say that you wanted to become a pirate, and every pirate has to start somewhere. Shanks seems fond of you and by the looks of things-" Here he cast a disdainful look on Fabioli's prone form. "-there's nothing worthwhile for you on this island. So, do you want to come with us and become a Roger Pirate?"

For a second there was a glimmer of excitement in Buggy's eyes, but it was quickly extinguished and replaced with distrust. "No. I do _not _want to be a Roger Pirate. What kind of a question is that? Are you an idiot? Just... leave me alone!"

Roger saw through the boy's bravado with ease. Underneath that hard-boiled surface was a boy that was so afraid to get hurt that he didn't dare get close to anyone. Whatever had happened to this kid in the past had left him incapable of trusting other people. 'And hanging around that piece of shit can't have helped either... Looks like this boy could use a friend, too.'

Roger had made his decision.

He suddenly grinned, grabbed the chains still wrapped around Buggy and threw him over his shoulder. "Too bad!"

Buggy was so shocked that all that escaped him was a, "Huh?"

"Rule Number One of being a pirate, kid: a pirate does whatever the hell he wants. You're coming with us." He turned towards his crew. "Let's go back to the ship. We have to introduce the crew to our new cabin boy!"

Loud protesting from the two brothers was heard before they were slapped on their heads by Sleigh. "The captain has spoken. Now get back to the ship, you whiny brats." He grabbed Mikken and Bane by their shirts and threw them out of the door before following them.

Howard was scratching his head with a good natured smile on his lips. "Well, if the captain says so, then I guess that's that," he said before following his friends through the door.

Roger locked eyes with his first-mate. "Any complaints?"

Rayleigh just sighed, then laughed softly. "You really are a softhearted idiot." His eyes then hardened and grabbed Shanks' ear. "Don't think that I've forgotten about your punishment, Shanks. You sneaked away from us not once but twice! You're on kitchen duty until I say otherwise, is that clear?!"

"Owowowow! I get it, I get it!" Rayleigh let go of his ear and Shanks nursed it with a pout on his lips.

Roger moved Buggy, who had snapped out of his shock and was wriggling and swearing loudly at him, to lie more comfortably on his shoulder before starting to walk. "Let's go, partner."

Rayleigh nodded and followed after his captain with a firm grip on Shanks' shoulder. The redhead was grinning widely, despite the pain in his ear and the punishment waiting for him back on the ship.

He was simply too happy to care.


	2. Noodles

**OK. Before the chapter starts, I'm going to take the time to give special thanks to those who have reviewed this story. I know that it can be pain to figure out what to write in a review. I'm horrible, HORRIBLE, at figuring out what to write in a review and don't write them very often, which is why I appreciate the time and effort you guys have put into telling what you think about my story. **

**BlueStar Sapphire-ProtoZero: I'm glad that you liked the first chapter. You were the first reviewer to this story and sent your first review even before the first chapter had been published, so thank you for showing your support so early on. **

**maybelady: Thank you very much! Let me tell you, any time I get to hear that I've managed to blow someone away with my writing, I get a serious ego boost. And I need that. Thank you again!**

**Obsession and Insanity: Glad it got your attention! Thank you for your kind words! **

**PandamoniumPress: I love that word: Brilliant. It's SUCH an awesome word! XD I'm glad that you have such a positive reaction to my story so early on. Thank you very much!**

**Kritone: Now you know! XD **

**littlewilkins: Thank you very much! **

**Wergtyh: I'm SO glad that you liked Buggy's background! I'm also glad to hear that I managed to catch the One Piece tone! ^^ Thank you very much!**

**MO-5431: Thank you for your kind words! Well, there has to be SOME reason why Buggy was a part of the Roger Pirates, and I had read someone write somewhere that they had thought Buggy was stupid for being overconfident and mouthing of at Mihawk at the War of the Best in Marineford, and that Mihawk could have killed Buggy had he infused his blade with Haki. So then I thought: What if Buggy was immune to Haki? Then his overconfidence towards even Grand Line swordsmen would be explained and it would give the Roger Pirates a reason to be interested in having him as a crew-member. I'm glad that you liked Buggy's and Shanks' origins. Believe me when I say that there will be more of that in future chapters. Thanks again! **

**I would also like to thank all those who have favorited and/follows the story: it feels good to know that you intend read my story to the very end. It motivates me, thank you very much! **

**As a last note, which has a more somber tone: In August 11 one of my childhood's most beloved actors passed away. He made me laugh. He made me cry. **

**Robin Williams, you will be sorely missed.**

**Now then: Here comes the next chapter! **

2) Noodles

Age: 11

It had been five days since Buggy had been taken by the Roger Pirates and he had not eaten a bite since then. He could both feel and hear his stomach grumbling in protest, but he was determined not to give in to his hunger. He didn't want to owe these pirates anything.

There hadn't been as much uproar as he had expected when he was introduced to the crew as the new cabin-boy. Some seemed a bit skeptic, but there had been surprisingly few of them who had openly protested the idea. Most of them had simply sighed, giving the impression that the captain often did weird things without consulting his crew and that they had gotten used to it.

They had all been pretty nice to him (except for the the big, black-haired guy they called Bane, who had done nothing but glare at him since he got on-board) but Buggy wasn't an idiot. Adults were never nice unless they wanted something in return. Any day now, the crew would drop their act of being nice and show their real colors. Just like Fabioli had. Just like... He shook his head. He didn't want to think about HIM.

Buggy was sitting on the deck and leaning his back on the cabin wall. It was well away from the other pirates that was milling about, and since they had given up on trying to include him in, for him, meaningless conversation, no one bothered him. He tried to ignore the rumblings of his stomach by focusing on the salty smell of the sea and the sound of seagulls. This was the only part of his kidnapping that he didn't mind so much.

Even before he became Fabioli's errand boy, he had dreamed of going out to sea, to be free to go wherever he liked and find treasures beyond his wildest dreams, and, if he was really lucky, to meet his father.

His mother had often spoken about how she met his father, who had been a pirate that one day visited Carnibal Island along with his crew. His mother, who at the time was working as a singer and dancer at a place called 'The Blue Moon Bar', met his father at said bar, and during the week that followed they spent every day together.

"It was never really love on my part..." Buggy remembered his mother saying, "...and I don't think that whatever he felt for me was really serious either, but we were very comfortable with one another. He did not look down on me for being a mere dancer and treated me like I was a lady. I couldn't care less that he was a pirate. His kindness told me that he was a good man."

After a week with each others company, his father's ship had departed and he along with it. Nine months later Buggy was born.

Buggy, being as young as he was at the time, did not really understand what his mother was talking about. He was more concerned with the fact that his father hadn't come back to visit them once during his entire lifetime, and furthermore, that he didn't even know what his father looked like. He had pestered his mother endlessly for more information about his father, but she only ever told him one other thing. "You got his nose."

Light footsteps could be heard on the deck, breaking through his nostalgic state. They stopped right in front of him and he sensed someone sitting. He didn't look up, but he knew who it was, since that person just _wouldn't leave him alone_.

A bowl of steaming hot noodles was put in front of him and Shanks' voice rang out, "Howard says that you haven't eaten anything since you got on-board. Here." He pushed the bowl towards Buggy. "I figured you might be uncomfortable with the others, so I brought this out to you." He put the bowl down on the deck and leaned his back on the railing, just looking at the boy sitting opposite of him.

Buggy could smell the delicious aroma of the noodles and felt his stomach rumbling in response to it. He glared at the boy sitting in front of him. This was all his fault! If that redhead hadn't hounded him, spouting nonsense about nakamas, he wouldn't be on this stupid ship in the first place.

He ignored the fact that if it wasn't for Shanks being captured along with him, the Roger pirates wouldn't have raided the warehouse and Fabioli would have probably killed him and dropped him in the ocean days ago. It's not like anyone would have come for him...

He shook his head to clear it of the troublesome thoughts. 'What's wrong with me?! First I'm thinking about my parents, and now this? It's the hunger, it has to be...'

"Buggy."

He was shaken from his thoughts, again, by Shanks voice which, to his surprise, was heavily tinged with worry. He looked up and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw Shanks' face no more than an inch away from his face. "Is your stomach hurting? Is that why you won't eat anything? We don't have a doctor on board, but Rayleigh-san said that your wounds weren't serious. Was he wrong? Are you hurting anywhere else?"

As the redhead shot off question after question, Buggy could do nothing else but stare at him incredulously. He couldn't believe that this idiot had the gall to act like he was worried. They had only known each other for a few days. Did he think Buggy was actually dumb enough to fall for a lame act like that?

His hands shot out and pushed Shanks' away from him. The redhead fell on his back, but immediately got his bearings and looked at Buggy with a shocked expression, while Buggy just glared at him with contempt.

"As if I would believe that you're actually concerned! It was that captain of yours wasn't it?! He sent you here to make YOU make ME eat something, didn't he?! Then you're gonna report back and he and that split-bearded old guy is gonna be all 'He ate our food, so now he owes us'. And then your gonna make me do stuff I don't want to do, all the while hanging the fact that I survive by eating your food over my head!" Buggy snarled at the redhead. "Well guess what! I've it all figured out! If I don't eat your food, you can't hold that over me, so there!"

The furious ranting was cut off by Buggy's stomach rumbling impatiently, and the clown's expression changed from anger to pain. He brought his knees up and clutched his stomach with his hands, trying to will the painful, empty feeling in his belly to go away.

"So that's how he got you, huh?"

Buggy's eyes snapped up and locked on the redhead. He was still in the position he had fallen in, but his expression had changed from shocked to understanding.

Shanks smiled at the clown. "I was wondering why you hung around that slime-ball. Did he trick the the other kids like that as well?"

Buggy's gaze still held an amount of suspicion, but after a few seconds he answered Shanks' question. "It was his specialty. He would tempt a kid with the promise of food and a place to sleep to reel them in and then force them to steal for him as long as they lived under his roof. It's not like we had anywhere else to go..."

Buggy shook his head. 'Why did I say that? Damn hunger...'

"Anyway, I know what adults are like, and your captain is no different..."

"Don't you dare compare my captain to that weasel."

Buggy promptly shut up at the tone of the redhead's voice. That tone was the same as the day they first met, the day when they both went down in fury of fists.

Shanks glared at the clown before getting up on his feet. "You can think whatever you like. It does not make it true. You are offered food because you're part of the crew now and because I... we don't want you to die. That's all."

He looked uncomfortable for a moment before he started to move towards the deck door. "Just eat the food, Buggy."

Buggy followed Shanks with his eyes until the redhead went under deck, then he looked down on the noodles that was rapidly cooling in front of him.

He sighed before picking up the bowl. The encounter with Shanks had let him see one thing, at least. Starving himself wasn't working. A tiny part of him might have known all along that what he was doing was stupid and that he needed to eat, but the larger part of him could not help but remember how he had been tricked by Fabioli.

He thought back on Shanks' expression when he compared Fabioli to the captain. 'He looked really insulted.' Buggy looked down on the bowl, then picked up the chopsticks before he slowly started to eat the noodles.

It was such an unspectacular meal, a bowl of simple noodles, yet Buggy felt like he never tasted anything as good as these noodles did at this very moment. He was so distracted by the taste and the feeling of finally getting some food in his stomach, that he failed to notice the tears that had started run down his face.

Maybe these pirates weren't the same as the adults on Carnibal Island. Maybe it was safe for him to eat their food.

But he was not their nakama. It didn't matter if they shared their food with him, it didn't matter if they let him be. It didn't even matter that they had saved him from Fabioli. He knew that if push came to shove, they wouldn't care whether he lived or died. At that moment he made a decision.

He would eat and drink whatever was offered, he would sleep under their roof, he would play their games, all while gathering his strength. And when an opportunity presented itself... he would escape from this flashy ship with its flashy crew, flashy captain and flashy redhead.

'Crewmates... Nakama... Give me a break.'


	3. Nightmare

**Hi! Well, this was a quick update! **

**Here's the review answers:**

**milapa: Thank you for your kind words! This story will have a hundred chapters, so you have a lot of 'Buggy and Shanks' to look forward to! **

**PandamoniumPress: Thank you! Crocus won't be in the story for a while, but you can look forward to seeing more of Rayleigh! ^_^**

**Next Chapter! A short one, but I promise the next one will be longer. Enjoy! **

**WARNING: This chapter may contain some disturbing material, just so you know.**

**/ Daeli**

3) Nightmare

Age: 11

He was at a dance show. Murmurs could be heard from all around him but all he could focus on was the lithe form dancing intricately on the stage.

She was beautiful. The prettiest in the whole world.

He had always thought so and always made sure to tell her whenever she was sad or angry. She would then laugh and hug him tightly to her.

Her name was Cyann and she was his mother.

As she danced on the stage, blue rose petals was fluttering all around her, following her movements like she was the goddess of the winds. There was no music leading her rhythm, yet her steps was carefully coordinated, as if she was dancing to tunes only she could hear.

She danced to the front of the stage and landed in a curtsy, facing the audience. The audience rose as one and clapped. Buggy didn't care about them. His attention was solely on her.

Suddenly she rose her head and looked straight at him. She smiled and reached out a hand. He smiled back and rushed forward into her waiting embrace. Her arms closed around him, and he immediately felt safe.

He nuzzled closer as she combed her fingers through his hair. "My baby boy. How much you've grown."

"Mom, I miss you so much."

"I'm always here, Buggy." She gently pried his arms from her waist and got down on her knees so that she was on the same level as her son.

"Remember what I've taught you, Buggy. The strong decides the fates of the weak. So be strong. Strong enough that you don't have to depend on anyone's mercy."

Buggy could see his mother shaking. "Mom?"

"Don't depend on anyone. Don't trust anyone. Don't love anyone."

Tears were rapidly falling from her eyes. She looked as if her heart was breaking. Buggy wanted to console her, but couldn't think of anything to say.

"Don't die like me, Buggy."

Suddenly her head whipped back and she was torn away from him, up into the air.

"Mom!"

Buggy jumped, trying to grab hold of her, but she was far beyond his reach. Behind her, a shadow was squeezing her throat, making her gasp for air.

He could hear the applause change from something sporadic to something rhythmic. Like the sound of a drum.

"What the hell are you all still clapping for?! Help my mother!" he yelled in desperation. But when he saw the faces of the audience, he paled in horror.

They were dolls.

Rows upon rows of giant dolls with dead eyes and eternal smiles. Their hands were clapping, faster and faster.

Clap... clap... clap...

He could hear his mother choking. He screamed, pleaded and threatened the shadow to let her go, but nothing was working.

Clap, clap, clap...

She stretched her hand towards him, and whispered two words with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Run, Buggy."

Clapclapclap...

CLAP!

With a last resounding clap, a loud crack echoed throughout the room and his mother twitched violently before hanging limply in the shadow's grasp.

Buggy fell to his knees, his eyes nailed on his mother's suspended body. Around him he could hear clatter as the dolls fell over in their seats. The shadow let go of her, making her fall towards the ground. Buggy reached out, trying to catch her...

...only for her body to go to pieces when she landed on the ground. Her limbs scattered over the stage, clattering as they went. He looked down by his feet and met the blue, porcelain eyes of his mother.

He screamed. He wailed. He cried. He flailed. And still all he could see was his mother's decapitated head, her mouth frozen into a grimace of fear.

Suddenly, he felt a cold breath on his neck, making all his hair stand on edge.

"You know..."

Shadowy fingers on his back, crawling towards the neck.

He couldn't move.

"...the best thing about dolls..."

He couldn't move!

"...is that when they break..."

The fingers reached his neck and curled lightly around his throat.

"...all you have to do..."

His head was tilted back and his wide black eyes met the green orbs and slight smile that he knew he would see.

"...is get a new one."

The fingers suddenly tightened and twisted. The last Buggy heard was the horrific sound of his own neck breaking.

/

Buggy shot up from his sleeping spot, panting and covered in cold sweat. He felt his head and stomach protest wildly at the sudden upward movement, and curled in on himself, desperately forcing himself not to throw up.

A few minutes passed and he finally felt his stomach calm down. He looked up from his position on the floor and listened. He could still hear snores coming from the men's sleeping quarters. So he hadn't woken anyone up. That was good. He really didn't feel like answering any questions regarding his nightmare.

The memory of green eyes and a soft smile played through his mind again and he shuddered. He knew that he would never forget that face as long as he would live.

The face of the man that killed his mother.

He yawned and curled up under his blanket. Maybe the nightmare was waiting for him the moment he slipped into dreamland, but he would have to risk it if he wanted to stay alert during the day. If the moment to escape arrived he didn't want to be sleep-deprived.

Buggy closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.


	4. Good People

**Hi everyone! Daeli here with a new chapter of _7 Years_!**

**I apologize for my update being as late as it is. There are four reasons why. First, I'm doing a bachelor's course in English, which means that most of my time is split between going to lectures, doing peer reviews and writing an essay. Second, we just got a new dog and she has been kind of a handful. Third, this chapter was a real pain to write; I had to rewrite it four times before I was satisfied with it. Fourth, when I was almost done with the chapter, my laptop crashed and burned. It took me few days before I got a hold of a new one. So again, I apologise. **

**About the story, there's one thing that I have to mention. I don't know if anyone have noticed it, but the Buggy and Shanks in my story are two years older than their canon selves. When I was figuring out how old the two of them were when they traveled with the Roger Pirates, I did a miscalculation. I'm just mentioning this so that if someone DID notice this little fault of mine, I know about it. But, you know... this is already a M/M story, so it's already not in line with the canon story-line. I hope this doesn't bother anyone. **

**As usual, here are the answers to the reviews! **

**Willow: Thank you! I'm glad that you like my Buggy! **

**PandamoniumPress: And this is just the beginning... MOAHAHAHA!**

**Cassie: Thank you very much! **

**Bluestar Sapphire – ProtoZero: I understand completely. When you're busy, you're busy. I know my third chapter is short and there might be other chapters of similar lenghts in the future, but don't worry, most of them won't be. **

**MO-5431: And a good day to you! Thank you for your most excellent review! **

**Gir Crazy: I'm flattered that you feel that way about my story! ^_^ **

**Guest and Pandemic: I'm so sorry for being so late with my update! I'm glad you like the story!**

**sairakanzaki: Wow. Really? You think my story is fantastic? I'm so happy to hear that! Thank you very much! **

**Thank you all for your support! Here's the next chapter! **

People

Age: 11

Mikken looked at the town where the Roger Pirates had just docked their ship. "That's strange. Where are all the people?" He looked up towards the eagle nest. "Hey, Sleigh! Are you sure that this town is inhabited? Looks pretty deserted to me."

Sleigh, who was making his way down from the main mast, glared down at his fair-haired shipmate. "I'm old, kid, but my eyes ain't given out on me yet. I saw people moving around on the docks when the town first came into view. I reckon that our Jolly Roger scared them of."

Mikken did not look convinced and threw another glance at the town, trying to pick out any movement. "You sure about that? I can't see anyone."

"Sleigh's right, Mikken."

The strong voice of Roger made Mikken, Sleigh and everyone else on deck turn to look at their captain. Roger went forward and put his hands on the railing with a small grin. "There are people living here, quite a lot of them actually. And they're all gathering about two hundred meters in." His grin grew wider. "It would seem that they are rallying themselves to form a welcoming party." Chuckles were heard from a few of the pirates at the joke.

"Uh, captain?" Howard's voice spoke up hesitantly. "It looks like they're done rallying."

From the depths of the small town, a group of up to a hundred people were making their way towards the pirate ship, and they did not look very happy. Roger clapped his hands together and turned towards his crew-mates with his usual grin. "Well then boys! Let's go meet the locals."

Buggy had been waiting for a moment like this.

He had been told to stay on the deck of _The_ _West Wind_ along with Shanks and Howard to, as Rayleigh had put it, 'observe how we Roger Pirates operate'. He could picture what the man meant by 'operate'. These guys were pirates after all, and this town looked pretty easy to sack.

All in all, it was a pretty clever idea of them to make him watch the sacking. The captain and his right hand man probably figured that if he saw how ruthless they were with civilians, he would be either so scared or so impressed that he would join the crew without anymore fuss. They must have grown tired of waiting for him to join them on his own volition.

Buggy smirked to himself. 'Well, aren't they gonna be so flashily surprised when they return from their looting only to find me gone?'

When he had found out that they were drawing near to an island, he had started to make preparations for his escape. He had managed to steal some bread, water, a little meat and even got his hand on a few gold coins from the pirates small treasury. Buggy was actually surprised that no one had caught him yet, but he was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He could only hope that his luck would hold up for the next few hours.

He had been with the Roger Pirates for a month now, and this was the first island the pirates had dropped anchor at since they left Carnibal Town. This was his chance to escape and he knew that if he failed at this attempt, there probably wouldn't be another one.

Buggy was certain that, despite the pirates trying to convince him that they wouldn't hurt him, if they discovered that he had stolen supplies from them and tried to escape from them, things would not work out well for him. Either they would lock him up until he decided to join their stupid crew or their patience would run out completely and they would simply kill him. He was not going to let that happen. He had to escape!

The pirates had barely gone unto the shore when they saw the town's inhabitants coming towards them, both men and women. They were all carrying improvised weapons, like large knives, hammers and rolling pins. Despite them outnumbering the pirates with at least 10-to-1 and looking rather tough for a bunch of townies, Buggy could tell that these people wouldn't stand a chance against the pirates. A part of him felt almost sorry for them, but the bigger part of him saw the opportunity that the upcoming conflict would present to him.

A muscular, gray-haired man in his sixties led the group. He was the only one carrying something that could actually be called a real weapon. It was a giant, silver-colored, basket-hilted broadsword. Its edge must have been sharp once upon a time, but age, and by the looks of it, frequent use, had dulled the blade considerably. Buggy scoffed to himself. 'It may not look much of a threat, but I bet that guy has crushed the skulls of many flashy pirates with it.' Yet, when compared to the captain and the vice-captain, even that guy paled in comparison.

The old man stopped about seven feet from the captain and meet his eyes with fierce determination. "I'm Graves, the blacksmith of this town. I come as a representative for the mayor and I will give you one warning, and only one: leave this place. This is our town..." He swung his great sword with one hand and pointed it at the pirate crew. "...and we'll be damned if any filthy pirates tries to take it from us!"

His speech brought courage to the townspeople standing behind him, making them call out threats towards the pirates.

"Get lost, pirates!" a older woman called out from behind the blacksmith.

One of the younger men on the front-lines took a step forward and lifted his pitchfork. "We don't want your kind in our town!"

Soon all kinds of threats and insults were raining down on the pirates.

During this exchange, Buggy was slowly, slowly moving away from Shanks and Howard, who were completely absorbed in the current happenings on the docks. He inched himself towards the starboard side of the ship, hoping that the two of them wouldn't notice what he was up to. He had hidden his provisions behind one of the water barrels in case a chance to escape emerged, and now it had.

This moment right here was the perfect opportunity. As soon as the pirates started rampaging through the town, he would make himself scarce and get as far away from them as he possibly could. How he would get off the island he didn't know yet, but he would figure something out. He always had before.

Down on the docks, the townspeople were growing steadily more angry and impatient. The Roger Pirates were standing still, waiting for orders from their captain. Rayleigh cast a glance at Roger, whose expression was unreadable at the moment. "What should we do, captain?"

Roger just looked at the riled up townspeople for a few moments before slightly indicating his head towards Rayleigh. "Looks like we don't have a choice." He started moving towards Graves, making the townspeople quiet down, watching the captain approaching their blacksmith with trepidation. He stopped in front of Graves, and as the two big men gazed at each other, the tension rose.

'This is it...' Buggy took another step backwards. 'Just say the word already, you flashy bastard.'

Roger broke his face-off with Graves to look out on the people standing behind the blacksmith. His sharp eyes made some of the townspeople squirm, but most of them held their ground.

'Come on, come on, come on...'

The red-clad captain then fastened his glance on the blacksmith, opened his mouth -

'NOW!'

-and started laughing.

The unexpected sound completely derailed any thoughts of escape from Buggy's mind and shocked him so much that he stumbled over his feet, which made him lose his balance and fall flat on his back. The sound of his body hitting the deck went unheard to the rest of the crew except for Shanks and Howard, who both turned and looked at him with surprise.

If Buggy had had any sense left, he would have picked himself up, gotten his provisions, jumped into the water and started swimming as fast as he could, as he had planned to do from the beginning, but the sheer surprise from hearing the captain start laughing instead of telling his pirates to attack (as he should have!) made the boy freeze. After a few seconds he slowly got to his feet and made his way between Shanks, who was now completely ignoring him in favor of his captain, and Howard, who was glancing at Buggy with concern. Buggy could do nothing but stare at the back of the man who had forcibly kidnapped him with a smile... the man who was still laughing loudly.

The captains laughter didn't just unnerve Buggy. Graves and the other townspeople seemed to in a shocked state and was just staring at Roger like he was insane. Graves was the first to shake the shock of and his eyes filled with anger.

"Are you mocking us, pirate?! These people have gathered here to defend their town despite being frightened of dying at your hands and you dare laugh at their resolve?!" His grip on his sword tightened and his next words were spit out between gritted teeth. "I will not let you laugh at their bravery."

Roger stopped laughing, but his wide grin remained on his face. "I'm not laughing at them, mate. I'm happy for them, that's why I'm laughing."

As the confusion settled on the blacksmith's face, the captain continued, now also addressing the townspeople. "You all have courage to come face us, not knowing if you would even have a chance to defeat us. I like that. And I can promise you that there will be no pillaging or burning from our side."

'What?' Buggy's mind could scarcely believe what he had just heard.

Graves stared confusedly at Roger. "What kinda trick is this, pirate?"

"No trick at all. We decided to dock at this harbor because our water is running low. Some food and other supplies would be good as well. Of course, we got money to pay for it."

The suspicious glint was lit again in Grave's eyes and he scoffed. "And that's exactly why I think you're pulling our leg, pirate. Why not simply take what you want like a normal pirate-"

"Now why would I do that? You and your fellow townies seem to be good people. I see no reason to fight you. We're the kind of pirates that will not attack unless someone threatens us." His grin took a slightly vicious turn. "But if someone was to try and hurt my nakamas, well... I can assure you that I'm just as protective of mine as you are of yours. You get what I'm saying, mate?"

Graves saw this and instantly knew that the man in front of him was serious. He took a moment to think before he lowered his sword slightly. "If your people won't attack my people, I see no reason to fight." He put his sword back on his back. "But be warned, pirate. One wrong move and I will put your head on a spike. And I'm not your mate."

"Duly noted." Roger turned towards his crew. "You heard the man, boys. Be on your best behavior."

The crew answered him with an unanimous shout and started making their way towards the town. The captain turned his head towards the three on deck. "You three get down here as well. These guys won't do anything to _The West Wind_," he said before also going towards town. Shanks and Howard both sighed in relief and made for the gangplank to join their crew mates.

Buggy, who had yet to move from his position, just watched them go. Shanks stopped about halfway down the plank and turn towards the clown with a furrowed brow. "What are you doing, Buggy? Come on, lets catch up with the others."

Instead of answering with an insult or glaring as he usually did, Buggy just silently nodded and followed the two crew members down the plank and went past them, without even buffing his shoulder into Shanks as he was prone to do whenever they went past each other. Shanks' and Howard's eyes met in disbelief over the change in attitude, but whatever they thought about it they didn't say a word about it out loud.

(-)

They had spent three days at the town, resting and getting new supplies. The townspeople had been wary of them at first, but after a day of watching the pirates laughing together and being genuinely respectable towards the inhabitants, they had started to relax and on the third night they had thrown a small party to say goodbye to the pirates. Even Graves, who according to the townspeople was usually loath to drink anything, had been seen sharing a toast with Roger.

Rayleigh chuckled to himself as he sat at Roger's and his desk doing an inventory of their water, food and supplies. Despite having known Roger for many years and being his closest friend, it still amazed him how easily Roger made people open up to him. The villagers, especially Graves, had been prepared to die fighting the pirates to protect their town, yet a mere jolly laugh from the captain had dissipated the anger, replacing it with confusion. They must had thought that he was insane, which wasn't that far from the truth.

He smiled to himself. 'I thought he was insane when I first meet him, and I can bet that every crew member thought the same.' But their captain had through his charisma managed to convince his current crew members to join his crew, one by one. Some had been more easily swayed than others, like Howard, who had fled his noble family's rigid lifestyle in order to become a sea chef. Some had been more difficult to recruit, like the brothers Bane and Mikken, who had seen their parents killed and village burnt down by pirates when they were only children. Despite all their protesting and assurance that they were going to kill Roger in his sleep, within three weeks they had opened up to the captain and decided to join his crew. 'My, has it really been five years since then?'

Rayleigh's smile fell and he looked out the round window that faced the deck. Reminiscing about the past made him think about his captain's newest addition to the crew. The blue-haired boy was sitting on the same spot he had been occupying every day for the last month. But something was different about him.

During the three days that they were in the town, Buggy had barely said a word. He was sitting away from the others, just looking at them, deep in thought. Rayleigh felt that something had changed in the boy. Before they came to the town, the boy had been exceedingly difficult. In the beginning he wouldn't even eat, but even after he started eating with the rest of the crew, he would draw himself back into a corner and keep glaring at anyone who came near him.

This had continued for a whole month, and more than once Roger and Rayleigh had had other crew members come into their cabin to complain about the boy. Bane especially had a problem with Buggy, saying that he didn't do anything to help on the ship, that he was nasty kid and that he would never want to become their nakama. Rayleigh listened to their complaints and agreed to a point. But Roger just laughed and told them to be patient.

At that time, Rayleigh didn't think that it would ever be possible for the boy to ever change his mind about them. But now when he looked at the boy, he could see why Roger seemed so confident. The guarded expression that had been constantly on Buggy's face since they met him had started to slip and had been replaced by bewilderment and frustration, like he was thinking on a riddle he could not figure out and was becoming more and more frustrated that he couldn't find an answer to it.

They had been back at sea for three days now, and Rayleigh could see how slowly the bewilderment was losing ground to the frustration. 'He's gonna crack anytime now. That should be interesting.' He smiled to himself, then he shook his head and went back to doing the inventory. Someone had to do it after all.

(-)

Howard had rung the dinner bell and everyone was sitting in the dinning area eating broth. Buggy was sitting between Shanks and Mikken and was just staring at his food with a troubled expression.

"Something wrong, Buggy? You've been weirder than usual for days," Shanks said with his mouth full. Usually Buggy would have retorted at that remark, but he just continued to stare at his food. Mikken threw a look at Shanks, but he only shrugged.

"Forget him," came Bane's voice from the other table. He looked up from his eating to look at Buggy with contempt. "I don't see why you're worrying about him. It's not like he appreciates your concern."

Mikken glared at his brother. "Knock it of, Bane. He's a kid."

Bane threw his spoon down and got to his feet angrily. "And what kind of excuse is that? Shanks may not do much, but at least he does something to help on this ship! That ungrateful little brat has been moping for a month and has been practically useless! Our goal is the Grand Line isn't it? Why should we take a brat with us who's just going to sit around and glare at us 'til his eyes pop out, all the while doing nothing to help on this ship? He doesn't want to be our nakama and I for one does not see why we have to be stuck with a brat such as him!"

Bane's outburst had made all the others stare at him. Some of them looked like they agreed with Bane, while others, like Shanks and Rayleigh was staring at him with anger. Everyone was looking at him... except for Roger. He was looking at Buggy.

During the whole of Bane's outburst Buggy hadn't moved a muscle. He was still looking down in his food, like he hadn't even noticed Bane talking about him. Suddenly his head slowly started to turn and he coolly met the captain's eyes.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Buggy rose from his seat and started walking towards Roger. Everyone's eyes had now shifted to the two of them. Buggy stood in front of the seated captain. A few seconds of tense silence went past before Buggy opened his mouth to speak.

"Why?"

Roger looked wonderingly. "Why what, Buggy?"

"Why didn't you take whatever you wanted from that town? You didn't have to pay for any of it. I know you're strong. So why didn't you just take it?"

Roger looked at Buggy for a few seconds before answering. "Why would we steal from those townspeople, Buggy?"

Buggy looked surprised. "Why?! You're pirates! Isn't that what pirates do?! Taking what they want from other people weaker than them, never having to pay for anything, being free to do whatever you want whenever you want!"

A grin made its way onto Roger's face. "Well you're only half wrong, at least. Listen carefully, Buggy. Do you know what a pirate crew really is?"

Buggy looked confused. "What it is? A pirate crew is a group of pirates traveling together."

"And why do they travel together?"

"Well... to survive, I guess. Isn't that something all humans do?"

Roger looked expectantly at Buggy. "Is that really all?"

Buggy looked like he was thinking hard before doing a double take and glaring at Roger. "Why are you asking me?! It's clear you want to say something. Just say it, already!"

"Let me ask you something else then. What do think a pirate captain is?"

Buggy looked annoyed. "That's obvious. A pirate captain is someone in charge of a pirate crew."

Roger smirked at the clown. "True... but not all."

Buggy lost his temper and stomped his foot on the ground. "Would you quit doing that?! You're being a flashy bastard!"

Roger laughed loudly before looking at Buggy. "I was interested to hear what you think a pirate and a pirate crew is. You said back in Carnibal that you wanted to become a pirate, so naturally I've been curious of what kind of pirate you were planning to be."

Buggy looked confused. "What kind? What do you mean by that? Pirates are bandits of the sea. They steal from other people. That's why I'm confused. I know you're strong, very strong even, and yet..."

Roger looked at Buggy with a contemplative expression on his face before speaking softly.

"Buggy, have you been afraid of us taking advantage of you because you're weaker than us?" Buggy jumped in his place before looking at the captain with suspicion. He slowly nodded and then gazed down on his feet.

"And us sparing the lives of the townspeople, even though they first came with the intention to fight, even though they were obviously weaker than us, have maybe started to make you feel more trusting towards us?"

Buggy looked up sharply. "Hell no! I've just been trying to figure out what your game is. Either you made a deal with Graves, to make up for all the valuables you could have stolen but didn't, or..." Here he hesitated.

Roger leaned forward, curious at the hesitation in the headstrong blue-haired kid. "Or what Buggy?"

Buggy meet his gaze head-on. "Or you're not real pirates."

At that comment many of the crew members rose sharply from their chairs and started shouting angrily at Buggy. They were silenced by their captain's voice. "SILENCE!" They stopped abruptly.

Roger was looking at Buggy with intensity. "I knew you were gutsy kid, but I didn't think you were foolhardy." Buggy's eyes lost their confidence and he was suddenly looking scared. A tense silence lingered over the room, but then it was broken by the sound of the captain snickering.

The other crew members looked at their captain with disbelief. "Captain, why are you snickering? He just insulted us!"

He grinned at his crew members. "Naw, I don't see it as an insult. I see it more as a clashing of opinions." His gaze focused on Buggy. "Buggy, we did not make a deal with Graves. That does not mean that we're not pirates. If they had attacked us, we would have struck back just as fierce. But they warned us before their attack, trying to defend their town without shedding any blood from any of us. Why would we attack people like that?"

As Buggy stood silent, Roger leaned back in his chair and started speaking.

"I will tell you something, Buggy. There are no such thing as one kind of pirate. Every pirate has a dream, dreams that differ from each other. Some dream of domination, others dream of riches. Some seek to forget their past, while others want to gain a reputation. And then there are pirates like us. We have banded together for one purpose and only one."

Buggy put his head on one side. "And what is that?"

Roger smiled. "To follow our dreams as free men."

Buggy could only stare. He did not say anything, because he didn't know what to say. What did the flashy bastard mean by that?

Roger saw the confusion on Buggy's face. "Allow me to explain. Every last one of my nakamas has had their freedom taken from them or has been oppressed at some point in their life, most of them by other pirates or the World Government. They all went out to sea to find the freedom to follow their varied dreams. The thing that binds them together is that they have entrusted their dreams to me." He leaned forward towards Buggy. "Do you see what I'm saying, Buggy? It is my duty as a captain to do everything I can for my crew mates. I would give my life to make sure that my nakama's dreams are made into reality." He grinned. "That, and I really am ridiculously fond of the ugly bastards."

Shouts of fake outrage could be heard from behind Buggy, but his focus was still on the captain. "That doesn't fully answer my question."

Roger tilted his head. "Doesn't it?"

Buggy crossed his arms across his chest. "Why do you care? They're not your dreams, not your ambitions."

Roger smiled mysteriously. "Because as a D, I believe in freedom over all else. That is why I care."

Buggy looked thoroughly confused. "A D? What the hell's that?"

The captain shook his head. "That's a story for another time. My point is, Buggy, we have all been trapped and alone at some point of our lives. This means that we would never subject this to another person. Buggy, you are not a prisoner..."

Buggy snapped. "Liar! I never wanted to be on this stupid ship! You forced me with you! I don't want anything to do with any of you!"

Roger's smile turned into a frown. "Now who's the liar? I saw it, Buggy. I saw the surprise in your eyes when we burst into the storage. I saw the fear when you thought we were going to kill you. I saw the hope when I asked you if you wanted to become a Roger Pirate. And during this last month I have seen the wistfulness and desperation. I will tell you again, Buggy: we will not hurt you. You are here because I want you to become our nakama. But if you really feel that you cannot trust us, even a little... I will let you go."

Shocked silence filled the room before the captain spoke, "We will turn this ship around and go back to the town. They are good people, I'm sure that they would let you stay with them."

Buggy stared at him with disbelief. "You serious? You're actually giving me a choice?"

Roger frown turned into a soft smile. "I brought you with us because I thought you were interesting and it looked like you needed a home. That Fabioli guy didn't do you any right. I thought that maybe me and mine could give you that home, so that you may become a pirate that are able to follow his dreams. But if you really feel that this ship is not and never will be your home, then yes, I will let you off at the town."

Buggy looked pensive and looked at the other people out of the corner of his eyes. Most of them seemed curious on what he was going to answer. But the one who captured his gaze was Shanks, who was looking at him rather... anxiously.

Buggy felt himself fidgeting under the intense gaze. 'Why's he looking at me like that?'

He decided to ignore the redhead for the time being and focus on what he was he was going to answer. On one hand, he had the townspeople. As the captain had said, they seemed like good people, but he didn't know them and they didn't know him. Would they help a kid they didn't know? A kid who was aspiring to become a pirate and steal all the world's treasures? No, they wouldn't. Because they were Good People.

On the other hand he had these pirates who at first had scared the hell out him, kidnapped him and had made him paranoid with their supposed kindness. But what if the kindness wasn't fake? What if he had had the luck of being picked up by probably the only softhearted pirates in all the seas? He did want to become a pirate, to steal all the treasure he could get his hands on. And these guys... He could use them.

That sealed the deal for Buggy. He would learn what he could from them, and when he grew older (and hopefully stronger) he would steal all their treasures and leave them high and dry.

He smirked to himself. 'Maybe my luck didn't run out after all.'

Buggy hid his smirk and turned towards the captain with seemingly new determination. "I have decided."

Roger looked into his eyes. "Well? What's your decision?"

"I will stay here."

Murmurs was heard from behind him. They had not expected his answer to be that. Roger looked intrigued. "What changed your mind?"

Buggy shrugged. "I want to become a pirate, and at least it seems that you guys won't cut my throat in my sleep." He glared. "Don't take me wrong; I still think that your talk of nakamas is a heap of flashy baloney. But you are strong and I can learn from you. So yes, I will become a Roger Pirate."

Silence reigned before Roger threw his head back and started roaring with laughter, and after a few moments, the rest of the Roger Pirates chimed in. Buggy only looked at them unimpressed. After the laughter had died out, Roger lifted himself from his seat and addressed his ship-mates. "Well, then! Let's have a celebration for the official joining of our new cabin boy, Buggy! Let's get drunk!"

And so the dinner erupted into a party that lasted all night. None of them slept until the first light at dawn and the captain gave them the day off to recuperate, so that they could set off the following morning.

As Buggy laid down to sleep in his alcove, he could hear the snores of the other ship members, and he smirked to himself. "Suckers."


	5. Pie

**Hi! Daeli here, with a brand new chapter!**

**Holy crap! Right now I'm being sucked down into the swamp called Higher Education, and it's killing my inspiration! Honestly, this chapter has been half-finished since the middle of December, but I haven't had the time and the inspiration and the energy to finish it until now. But enough is enough! I look back at the last year and I see that I have only posted 5 out of the 100 chapters I have planned for this story and this just won't do. I will definitely try to update more frequently than I have before!**

**I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who have pointed out errors in my story. English is my second language, and despite reading and writing English on a daily basis, it will never become my first language, so I always appreciate people who are native speakers of English pointing out if something I have written sounds wrong or if I have miss-spelled something. Of course, I also like to get feedback on my writing style, since that helps me become a better writer.**

**As per usual, here are my answers to your fabulous reviews!**

**BlueStar Sapphire – ProtoZero: Thank you! I'm glad you found it interesting! **

**sairakanzaki: Thank you for your review. : ) Last chapter was probably the chapter with the least 'Shanks and Buggy interaction', but don't worry. Each chapter here on after will have a lot more focus on the two boys' relationship. It IS a Shanks/Buggy-story after all. ;) **

**MO-5431: Oh my God, this review! *_* It is SO satisfying as a writer when someone gives me this kind of feedback! It tells me that I'm doing SOMETHING right! XD I have corrected the sentence you pointed out, thank you for telling me! : ) **

**PandamoniumPress: Thank you again for appreciating my story and taking the time to write this awesome review! I checked the spelling and corrected it. Thank you for pointing it out to me! : ) **

**Willow: Only time will tell! : )**

**Cassie: It seems like everyone likes my Buggy! I'm so glad! **

**Raphlez: Thank you! Look forward to many more interactions between the two of them! **

**3asro: I'm so sorry for the long wait! Please enjoy this chapter! **

**Gir Crazy: Thank you so much for your sympathy. I feel bad that I've had to neglect this story for so long. Seeing that people actually enjoys reading my story and are looking forward to any new chapters warms my heart immensely. **

**Without further talking, here it comes!**

**/ Daeli**

5) Pie

Age: 11

It was perfect.

The scent of freshly baked bread combined with the heavy aroma of blueberries was enough to make Buggy's mouth water. The crust looked not so thin as to let the filling run through the bottom, yet not too thick so as to becoming doughy in its taste. The blueberries on top looked fresh, like they had been picked yesterday. It was probably the most delicious looking blueberry-pie Buggy had ever seen in his short life.

The only thing ruining the perfect picture was the redhead currently holding out the pie towards him with a stupid grin on his face.

He looked at the pie, then at the redhead. Pie. Redhead.

"-What's this?" Buggy said with suspicion.

Shanks' grin didn't falter in the slightest. "A blueberry-pie."

Buggy's eyes remained suspicious and had now been tainted with annoyance.

"I can see what it is, you flashy bastard. What I meant is, _why are you holding it out towards me_?"

"Howard made too many of them and gave me one. I thought that we could share it," Shanks answered with the grin still on his face. Then his grin turned a bit bashful and his right hand moved up and under his straw-hat to rake through his hair. "I was so excited about the pie that I forgot to bring plates with me, though." His bashful expression quickly turned cheerful. "But I did remember to bring two spoons with me!"

He sat down Indian style, put down the pie in front of him and gestured for Buggy to sit down with him. "It's okay if we eat the pie directly from the form, right? We're both pirates, so who cares about table-manners anyway?"

When Shanks noticed the uncharacteristic silence coming from Buggy he stopped fiddling with the spoons and looked up at the clown.

Buggy had backed a few steps away from Shanks and the pie and now stood glaring at him. "Why are you doing this?"

The redhead tilted his head in confusion. "Why am I doing what?"

The clown gestured violently with his right hand towards the pie. "THIS! Talking to me, bringing me pie, acting like I'm your friend..."

He trailed off before crossing his arms and turning his head with a huff. "I've already agreed to sail on this stupid ship, so you don't have to hang around me all the time."

Buggy had hoped that after he agreed to become part of the crew, the redhead would finally leave him alone, but it seemed to have had the exact opposite effect. While before Shanks had only bothered him once a day, he now pestered him ALL THE TIME! He had tried to get the redhead to give up on hanging around him by calling him names, by ignoring him, even by pushing him away forcibly, but the redhead was persistent to say the least.

By now the grin that before had seemed etched on Shanks' face had started to waver. "But I want to hang around you."

Buggy kept glaring at him from the corner of his eye. "Why?"

The grin vanished completely and was replaced by a look of pure determination.

"Because I want to be your friend! And I want you to be my friend as well!"

Buggy looked surprised at the outburst before gazing closely at him, squinting his eyes as if he was trying figure out a riddle.

"I know that I've asked this question before, but why are you so hung up on me becoming friends with you? You know that I'm not exactly friend-material, least of all to someone flashy like you who seems to be on a constant sugar-rush."

Shanks looked contemplative before giving up a frustrated sigh. "Honestly, you really look down on yourself too much."

His gaze turned serious and he gazed up at the blue-haired boy. The words he then said would forever resonate within Buggy, no matter how many times he tried to forget them in the years to come.

"You are the only one who thinks like that. To me, you are the friend I've been waiting for all my life."

Buggy was struck speechless. He could feel the words strike a cord within him and his face grew hot with embarrassment. 'Who the heck says something like that?!'

If it had anyone else saying a line like that, Buggy wouldn't have believed them for a second and would have jeered at them for uttering such an obvious lie. But just one look on Shanks' face told Buggy that the other boy was dead serious. That didn't help his embarrassment at all and Buggy knew that by now his face must be the same shade of red as his nose.

Before Buggy could even think of a suitable reply, Shanks started talking again.

"When we first met I thought that you were simply a thief, and I was just going to knock you out and take back my wallet. Then the rest of the crew showed up and Captain Roger pretty much forced you to give it back. Had it ended like that, I probably wouldn't have spared you a second thought. But when you threw back the coin the captain gave to you and told me that you would look for me when you became a pirate to finish what we started..." He took a breath before continuing bashfully. "This will sound stupid, but I suddenly got a flashback of when I used to watch the other kids go home after playing all day. They would say things like "See you tomorrow" and "Let's play again"."

Shanks pulled his knees up to his shin and put his arms around them. "I, uh... I always wanted someone to say something like that to me. So when you said that you would find me on the great sea someday, it felt to me like you were saying 'See you later'. And I became so happy, it was almost ridiculous. Despite having just met you... I don't know how else to explain it really."

Shanks cast a glance at Buggy to gauge his reaction to his words. The clown was gaping silently, his mouth trying to form words but failing miserably, his face practically glowing red. Shanks smiled bemusedly before continuing his story.

"It wasn't until it became night and I was laying in hammock trying to sleep that it occurred to me that you didn't faint despite being so close to me when I was angry. It was then that I definitely decided to find you the next day. I didn't want to wait until we had grown up before I saw you again. I wanted to see if my first impressions of you were right."

The smile slowly grew into the familiar grin. "And they were. During our second meeting, I found out that you were both smart and could definitely handle yourself in a fight. I also found out that you were hilarious, which was something I hadn't expected at all. But the best thing was that you weren't afraid of me. That was when I decided that you would become my friend."

He took hold of his straw-hat and put it on his head before raising from his position on the deck unto his feet. He then looked Buggy straight in the eyes. "Do you get it now, Buggy? I don't want us to be friends because you're here, I want us to be friends because you're you."

The two boys just looked at each other, examining each other. A few minutes passed with the seagulls and the other pirates' laughter from the dining area being the only sounds that could be heard. After a few moments of silence, Buggy sighed loudly.

"I'm not like you, redhead. I have never felt the need for a friend and I still don't -" He was abruptly interrupted by Shanks.

"I won't give up on - !"

Buggy swiftly took a few steps towards him and slapped his left palm over the redhead's mouth before hissing: "Will you let me finish talking, you flashy blabbermouth?!"

Shanks, who managed to pull off looking both surprised and annoyed at the same time, stood perfectly still for a few seconds before slowly nodding his head. Buggy removed his hand with a huff.

"_As I was saying, _I don't need a friend. But -"

He hesitated before closing his eyes and crossing his eyes, searching for the right words.

"It took me a long time, but I have come to understand two things about this crew: They're strong, and more surprisingly, they're kind. This means that I can learn about being a pirate while not having to worry about someone stabbing me in the back or treating me horribly. But ever since I agreed to join the crew, I've been trying so hard to make you keep your distance from me that I haven't been able to learn _anything, _and since it has become flashily obvious that you're never gonna quit bothering me, I've just made another decision."

He opened his eyes and uncrossed his arms, putting his left hand on his hip while pointing at Shanks' with his other hand. "I'm gonna become a pirate, and if that means having you around all the time, then so be it. I'm not gonna waste anymore time or energy on trying to make you leave me alone anymore."

He hesitated again before he half-turned away from Shanks and ruffled through the hair on his neck nervously with the hand he had just used to point at him.

"And... I guess you're not the worst person to have around, even though you're stupidly sentimental..."

Shanks reached out and took a hold off Buggy's left hand, smiling happily at the clown. "Great, that's settled then! Hey, now that we're friends, you want to check out where I have my stuff?"

Before Buggy could answer the question, (or more importantly, make him let go of his hand!), the redhead started dragging Buggy towards the dining area. "Captain Roger and Rayleigh-san gave me some space of my own, because some of the crew members doesn't want a kid around where they sleep. Something about me 'disturbing nightly rituals'; I don't know. But anyway, I'll ask the captain if you can sleep at my spot. We can put in of another hammock, I'm sure there are some in the storage room..."

As Shanks was contently blabbing away, Buggy was fighting resignation of his fate and irritation towards the redhead dragging him. He was just about to open his mouth and yell at Shanks...

"_You're the only one who thinks like that. To me you are the friend I've been waiting for my whole life."_

He swallowed his words, and decided to simply let it slide this once. But just this once! He would be damned if he let the redhead drag him around wherever and whenever he pleased.

The two boys were so into their own separate worlds that neither of them noticed that they had left the rapidly cooling pie behind, its purpose already fulfilled.


	6. Knives

**Well... I THOUGHT that I would have a lot of free time to spend on writing my stories, but NOOO~! Unfortunately, I had to rewrite my essay during the summer if I wanted to pass my course and the deadline was in August. I need to have my essay passed, both for the sake of my future and myself, for all the blood, sweat and tears I have shed on this essay! **

**I did try to make time to write this chapter, but between the essay, writer's block and me wanting to have at least a small amount of free time for myself, it was slow going. But it's finally done.**

**As per usual, here's my answer to the reviews:**

**SimpleNameToRemember: Thank you for this review! Buggy being able to stand up to Conqueror's Haki (or any kind of Haki really) is something I added myself and is not something that has been confirmed in the canon universe. I felt that Buggy needed an ability that made him interesting enough to Roger for him to want him to join the crew and Buggy being able to neutralize any Haki that comes near him was what I came up with. I do believe that canon Buggy would be able to at least withstand the Conqueror's Haki, since he spent years traveling together with Roger, Rayleigh and Shanks, who all possesses the Conqueror's Haki. **

**MO-5431: It's official: You are the greatest reviewer EVER! I hope that all my future chapters can hold up to your expectations! Thank you so much! **

**maybelady: Thank you for the feedback and the review! Don't worry, Roger will be acting much more crazy in the future. The reason why he is so reasonable in the scene with him and Buggy talking is because he realized that him simply expecting Buggy to join the crew just because he took him away from Fabioli was a miscalculation on his part, and he wanted to make it clear to Buggy what kind of people the Roger Pirates are. That means that he actually had to act calm for a change and explain things in a reasonable way, since simplifying things wouldn't have gotten through to Buggy. This is what I was trying to convey, but since Roger is one of the harder characters for me to write, I might have failed at that. ^_^U **

**sairakanzaki: I will update as soon as I can! As I have mentioned before, English is my second language so some minor mistakes is only to be expected. If someone points out something or if I notice something by myself, I will correct the error of course. **

**BlueStar Sapphire – ProtoZero: Thank you for your concern. It's hard work, but at the same time it is very rewarding! I'm glad you liked the ending. They usually aren't my strong suit, but I was actually proud of this one. **

**3asro: Thank you for your review! Yeah, 11-year old Shanks and Buggy are adorable, aren't they? ^_^ And being greedy for my chapters aren't a bad thing! It gives the push I need to try and update more often, so thank you!**

**lalalightwood: Thank you for your review! And I love Buggy and Shanks as well! (Obviously.) I can't wait until their background is shown in the manga, even though it will probably take years before that happens. And yes, there will be a 100 chapters in this story, so you have a lot to look forward to! **

**Jelly Babes 101: Thank you for reviewing and following my story! I was almost afraid that I was getting too mushy with the boys, but you guys seem to love it! (I actually researched on pies to try and find the most delicious-looking one of them all. Glad you found it as mouthwatering as I did! )**

**Neea: Thank you soooooo much for this review! I love Buggy as well, and I'm glad that everyone likes my portrayal of him. Here's hoping you enjoy all the chapters to come!**

**Maylein: I'm sorry it's been so long! :( But I'm glad that you like my story! Shanks and Buggy interacting with each other is always funny to write! **

**And now, here comes the chapter! Enjoy!**

**/ Daeli **

6) Knives

Age: 11

Left, right... Left, right...

Buggy watched the knives go up in the air, only for gravity to bring them down towards him again. Long ago he might have become nervous at sight of the knives coming down towards him, but now he easily caught them in his hands only to send them up in the air again.

It was after dinner time and Buggy had sneaked away to do some way overdue knife-practice. Shanks was on kitchen duty so he was on his own for once. He was gradually getting used to having Shanks hanging around all the time; he was even getting used to the redhead's tendency to blather when he was excited. The current silence almost made Buggy feel lonely, but he shook off the feeling and continued to concentrate on his knives.

During his years working for Fabioli handling knives had become a second nature to him, both as tools for juggling when putting on a show for the tourists and as weapons when defending himself. Now, he could easily juggle five knives wearing a blindfold if he wanted to, but he had settled for three this time since it was the first time he ever juggled on a boat. The waves kept trying to get him off balance and he didn't like that. Not one bit.

If there was a battle he had to be sure that he had full control over his knives. He couldn't afford to lose his balance and drop them. One time could be enough to get him killed.

Well, that was what practice was all about wasn't it?

Left, right... left right...

"That's awesome!"

The enthusiastic cry made Buggy flinch the same moment a large wave hit the side of the ship. Buggy lost his balance and fell hard on his back, and after cursing in pain he opened his eyes only to see two of the knives falling down towards him. He screamed and rolled to the side, hearing the knives sink into the deck behind his back.

A few seconds of dead silence reigned before... "Wow, you got good reflexes."

Buggy jumped up on his feet and snarled at the owner of the voice, which of course could only be one person.

"Goddammit, redhead, don't sneak up on me like that!"

Shanks (looking totally unconcerned about how he almost caused a flashy accident, dammit!) came up to him. "You're really good at that! Could you do it with burning knives? I saw some jugglers while we were at Carnibal Island, and they looked really cool doing that!"

Buggy scrounged his face up in contempt. "Why would I ruin a pair of perfectly good knives? Setting metal on fire is simply a trick to dazzle tourists, you idiot. It looks fancy, but the one juggling always has to replace the blades afterward. I don't need to impress, I just need to be sure that the knife goes where I want it to go."

Shanks 'Hmmm'-ed in answer and sat himself down on the deck. After a few seconds checking that Shanks wouldn't try anything stupid, Buggy started reaching for the knives stuck in the deck.

"Where did you get the knives from, anyway?"

Buggy froze at the question before pulling out the knives from the deck. "I stole them from the storage room a couple of days after we left Carnibal Island." He saw Shanks's looking at him with disapproval. "Don't give me that flashy look. I thought I might need them, OK?" Neither of them mentioned out loud what they both knew what Buggy thought he would need the knives for.

"You know Rayleigh is the one who does the inventory and he has probably noticed that the knives are gone, right?"

Buggy started juggling the knives lazily. "I figured. But he hasn't asked me to give them back, so I'm keeping them." He glared at Shanks from the corner of his eye. "Wanna make something of it?"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

A few minutes went past with neither of them speaking before Shanks piqued up: "Hey, do you think we could spar sometime?"

Buggy answered him without taking his gaze away from the knives. "Do you even own a weapon?"

"I'm learning sword-play from Rayleigh-san. I'm not good enough to get my own sword yet, but I'm gonna get it soon enough."

Buggy snorted under his breath. "In other words, 'no'."

Shanks huffed in annoyance. "It's not like those are _your _knives either, you know." Buggy didn't dignify that statement with a response. "Fine, how about hand-to-hand fighting, then?"

Buggy thought for a few seconds before giving a smirk in Shanks' direction. "I could always use someone to beat up on my frustrated days."

Shanks' eyes lit up in excitement and he jumped to his feet. "How about right now?"

The smirk turned into a frown. "No."

"Oh, come on. I'm bored and it's not like you're doing anything important anyway." When he saw the clown tense up and his eyes harden, Shanks knew that he had said something wrong.

"It's important to me, redhead. If you think I'm so boring why don't you get lost and leave me alone?!" With that outburst Buggy caught the knives as they fell down, turned his back on Shanks and started moving towards another part of the ship.

Shanks ran after him. After these months of getting to know the clown, there was one thing he had learned: If you hurt Buggy's feelings, you would have to apologize immediately, otherwise he would become sulky and it would become a major pain to try and apologize to him later.

Shanks caught Buggy's shoulder and turned him around. "I'm sorry. It wasn't meant to come out like that."

Buggy glared at the hand holding his shoulder before moving on to glaring into Shanks' eyes. Seeing the sincere apology in his eyes, Buggy shrugged of the hand with a huff. "I'm still not sparring with you."

Shanks shrugged; he was just happy that the clown hadn't become too upset with him. "Can I at least stay and watch you juggle?"

Buggy gave him a dead-pan look. "Do you really have nothing else to do?"

"Not really. I've finished all of my chores, and Rayleigh's busy so I can't train with him." Shanks gave him a grin. "Besides, you're here so I might as well be here too."

A small dust of red crept up on Buggy's cheeks before he sheepishly turned around and started fiddling with the knives. "Simple as always... Fine! But if you bother me even the slightest, I WILL chuck my knife at you. And I don't miss."

"Yeah, yeah..." Shanks leaned on the railing and watched as Buggy restarted his juggling session. As he continued his juggling, Buggy could feel the presence of Shanks standing behind him, and the feeling of loneliness that he had been struggling with earlier evaporated without a trace.

The rest of the evening was spent in companionable silence.

/

"What are you looking at?"

"Sch! Pipe down, or they'll hear us."

Bane looked down at Mikken, who was crouching down and gazing intently on something behind the corner. As Bane followed his brother's gaze, he saw what he was looking at and gave an annoyed huff. "You're looking at the kids? Why?"

Mikken rose from his position and and grabbed his brother's forearm, pulling them him away from the corner so that they wouldn't be seen or overheard by the two boys. "Because, my dimwitted brother, I'm becoming interested in training our new protege in the noble arts of the knife."

Bane wrenched himself out of his brother's grip and glared at him. "Call me dimwitted again and I'll freaking throw you overboard." He made a gesture with his head in the direction of the two boys. "Besides, Buggy? You really wanna train that kid?"

The fair haired knife master crossed his arms and stood defiantly in front of Bane. "And why not? I'm the best there is when it comes to handling knives and he certainly has the natural skills for it. With some pointers, I think he can become great at it."

Bane closed his eyes and shook his head at his brother's words. "Don't bother with him, Mikken. He's not gonna thank you for it, heck, he probably won't even last the trip to the Grand Line. He just don't have what it takes." He opened his eyes and sneered. "Admit it, the only reason you're pretending to be interested is because I dislike the brat."

Mikken turned his head with an insulted scoff. "Not everything I do revolves around you, you know. I've already given my reasons, it's up to you if you chose to believe me or not. Now if there was nothing else..."

Bane made a gesture towards the captain's cabin. "Captain says you're on night-watch. You should go get some sleep, so we don't get boarded in the middle of the night."

"Hilarious. Fine, I'll go have a nap then. And Bane... I'm training Buggy, no matter what you have to say about it." With that said, Mikken turned away from Bane and went into the sleeping quarters.

After Mikken had left, Bane's sneer softened into a frown and he cast one last glance at the two youths on the deck before walking away.

It sometimes amazed Bane that after having known each other for their entire lives, Mikken still couldn't tell when he was lying. He smiled wryly to himself. 'I guess that makes me pretty good liar, then.'

He didn't hate Shanks and Buggy, no matter how much he might complain about them. He actually liked Shanks, with his bright smiles and positive outlook on life. Buggy... OK, so the brat had been difficult since day one and still had a tendency to be rude to everyone except Shanks, Rayleigh and the captain; but the kid had survived in pretty bad circumstances. Bane could respect that at least.

Bane and Mikken had also grown up in a bad neighborhood; they had become accustomed to the smell and sight of death at a young age. Trusting no one, they had survived only by killing and deceiving others, until the day they ran into Captain Roger. To put it simply: Buggy reminded him of his younger self.

All this lead to him not wanting the two boys to die.

That was the main reason he hadn't wanted them to join the crew. No matter how much he respected Captain Roger, he sometimes felt that the captain was too idealistic in his thinking. Yes, as pirates they were living like free men, but that freedom came with a cost. To keep that freedom you had to be prepared to kill for it... or even die for it. Out on the sea it was every crew for themselves and many pirates wouldn't think twice about killing someone from another crew – even if that someone was still a kid.

If Shanks and Buggy remained on the ship, one of them would die sooner rather than later. And Bane wasn't looking forward to it.


	7. Teacher

**Everyone, thank you all for supporting me with your reviews, favorites and follows! You'll be happy to know that the essay came out great! It will still need some minor modifications before it is passed, but I don't need to do a total rewrite of it like last time! **

**Here comes the answers to the reviews, as usual:**

**MO-5431: Oh, I have a lot of plans for Buggy... *evil cackle***

**Neea: I know, right! I don't understand why there isn't more love for Buggy. But at least WE love him, right? ^_^ **

**Lilli: Awesome! I want my readers to have a good time while reading my stories! Hope you enjoy all the following chapters!**

**Enjoy the chapter, everyone!**

**/ Daeli**

7) Teacher

Age: 11

Rayleigh opened the door to the dining room and looked inside. Bingo. There he was.

It was in the middle of the afternoon so there should have been no one in there, but at one of the tables sat Buggy all by himself. Finally finding the one he had been searching for Rayleigh surged forward to confront him, but after seeing what the boy was up to, he stopped somewhat behind him and just... observed.

The boy had a book opened up in front of him. His face was turned away from him so Rayleigh couldn't see his expression, but given the tense back, the low mutterings and the finger following the lines, it was obvious that Buggy was concentrating hard on the book before him.

"Where did you learn how to read?"

Having been so engrossed with the book, Buggy yelled in surprise and fell off the chair and on his back with a wince. He quickly got up on his feet and faced the vice-captain.

"Would it kill you to knock?! What do you want?!"

Rayleigh ignored the questions. "You didn't answer me. Where did you learn how to read?"

Buggy's expression became dark.

"Why do you ask? Do I look like someone who can't read? Is that it?!"

The vice-captain put up his hands, showing he meant no harm.

"No, no, nothing like that. It's just that... unless you're planning to become a navigator or a doctor, being able to read isn't really a requirement for becoming a pirate. Especially when one is as young as you."

He gave a small scoff.

"Besides, I can't imagine that Fabioli fellow sitting down and having reading lessons with you all."

Buggy still looked like he wanted to take a bite out of Rayleigh, but after a few seconds he answered tersely, "My mother taught me."

That... was surprising. Buggy had never made any mention on his life before Fabioli, and he definitely hadn't mentioned anything about his parents. Rayleigh knew that during the months Buggy had been traveling with the Roger Pirates he had begun to slowly open up to Shanks, mostly due to sheer stubbornness on Shanks' part. But he had yet to open up to the rest of the crew, and Rayleigh had started to worry that the boy would keep his shields up forever. But hearing him mentioning his mother in front of Rayleigh instead of avoiding the question or snarling that it was none of his business made him hopeful that maybe the boy was relaxing around him as well.

"Oh?"

Buggy nodded and sat himself down on his seat. "Yeah, she always said that I had to be able to read so that no one could take advantage of me."

"Take advantage of you?" Rayleigh asked incredulously.

Buggy nodded again, following the lines in the book with his fingers while trying to find where he had stopped reading. "Mother told me stories of men who had lost everything they owned just because they couldn't read. She didn't want that to happen to me, so she was very strict during her lessons."

It was a bleak reason for wanting your child to be able to read, but considering where they lived Rayleigh couldn't blame the woman's reasoning. "Smart woman, your mother."

Surprisingly enough, his compliment was meet with a scoff from Buggy.

"Didn't help her much in the end, did it?"

Rayleigh rose an eyebrow in inquiry, but when Buggy didn't elaborate further what he meant by that statement he sighed and sat down beside the boy. He was a little curious about what had happened to Buggy's mother, but didn't push the boy for details. There were more important issues to discuss.

Given what he had seen, Buggy was still very much in the learning phase of reading and would still need a lot of practice reading. Living in precarious circumstances probably hadn't given the boy a lot of opportunities to practice, since he seemed to need absolute concentration when he was trying to read.

As Rayleigh watched Buggy struggle with the text in front of him, he made a decision.

"Do you want me to teach you how to read properly?"

Buggy's head snapped up at that and he stared incredulously at the vice-captain seated beside him before his eyes again narrowed and he rose from seat, fuming with anger.

"What do you mean properly?! You saying my mother was a bad teacher?! I will take you on right now, old man!"

Rayleigh stayed silent, simply observing him during his outburst. As Buggy started to calm down he became more and more uncomfortable with how the vice-captain was simply watching him silently. If Buggy had spoken to Fabioli the same way he had just spoken to Rayleigh, the mob boss would have whipped him bloody before cutting off a finger, yet the pirate before him seemed to be totally calm.

"OK, so we didn't get to have many lessons before she...!"

Buggy cut himself off and slowly resumed his seat. It hurt to admit, but he knew what Rayleigh meant by reading _properly. _He had seen Fabioli go through a whole paper in only ten minutes, which is how long it took for Buggy to even understand the front page.

So yes, he understood that if he wanted to actually become good at reading, he would need a teacher. What he didn't understand was why the vice-captain, the second most authoritative person on the ship, would want to waste any time teaching him, a mere cabin boy, well... anything.

"Why would you do something like that for me?"

Rayleigh smirked at the boy.

"Don't think that you're special, kid. I've been in charge of Shanks' education since the brat came on board, and he could barely read when we brought him with us." Rayleigh looked to the side and muttered under his breath. "The little monkey has been a pain to teach, too. Too much energy and too little patience makes for a very annoying student."

Buggy snorted in laughter before slapping his hands over his mouth, looking up at Rayleigh with wide eyes.

Rayleigh's smirk softened into a smile and then a grin. Then, before Buggy could react, he affectionately ruffled the boy's blue hair. "I won't bite you! Relax, Buggy!"

"Hey!"

Buggy flailed his hands to try to dislodge the man's hand from his hair, and when he finally succeeded he began straightening it out with a small pout on his face.

Rayleigh chuckled before he rose from his seat, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Seriously though, Buggy. You're welcome to join me and Shanks at our lessons. I think having you there will be the spur Shanks needs to actually want to learn something."

Buggy was still fiddling with his hair, half in an attempt to fix the mess, half in an attempt not to show his embarrassed face to Rayleigh.

"...I'll think about it."

A sudden thought hit him. "Not that I care or anything, but why did you come in here in the first place? Were you looking for me?"

Rayleigh froze abruptly before looking on the side and laughing to himself. "Oh, that's right. I totally forgot." Suddenly the smile was replaced by a frown.

The next thing Buggy knew, he was knocked on the head with Rayleigh's closed fist.

"Ow!" Buggy clutched his head in his hands and glared up at Rayleigh with smoldering eyes. "What the hell was that for, you flashy old man?!"

Rayleigh was unmoved by the kid's glare. "Didn't I tell you last night that you and Shanks were gonna swab the deck as punishment for yesterday's _incident_?"

Buggy blinked. And blinked again.

"Ah."

He remembered now. He and Shanks had been arguing about which season was the best one, with Shanks liking the spring best while Buggy argued that autumn was the best. It had quickly escalated and they had started fighting physically during dinner. Thus the punishment.

"I might have... forgotten about it."

Rayleigh's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"But it's not my fault that the redhead has stupid opinions! Who would chose spring over autumn anyway?! He should be the only one punished for being such a flashy idiot!"

Rayleigh simply pointed to the door.

"Fine!" Buggy hastily got up from his seat and stomped over towards the door.

"Three days from now."

Buggy's hand froze over the handle.

"If nothing unexpected happens, our lesson will be three days from now, here in the dining room at noon. Come if you feel like it."

"I won't! I wouldn't go to your lessons even if you dragged me, old man!"

Buggy threw one last haughty comment and blew a raspberry before swiftly running out to the deck. There was a sound of two bodies colliding and suddenly a cacophony of sounds rose from outside, the most prominent being Buggy's swearing, Shanks' yell of surprise and Roger's loud laughter.

Rayleigh sighed to himself and moved towards the door, resigned to his fate to make everyone do their damn jobs, their captain included.

Before he went out, he cast one last glance on the book on the table. He could still see the title written in large letters across the front page.

_Traveling Through Hell on Earth: A Sailor's Tales of the Grand Line_.

Rayleigh smiled to himself. Maybe he would find something easier for Buggy to read when they next made port.

Because Rayleigh knew that despite Buggy's harsh attitude, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to learn something new. Maybe he wouldn't show up to the first lesson, maybe not even to the second, but eventually he would come around.

Rayleigh would just have to be patient. And having traveled so long with a captain like Roger, being patient with Buggy wouldn't be a problem.

He stepped out from the calm and entered the chaos. Time to get to work.


	8. The First Treasure

**Happy New Years!**

**So. It's been a while. Again. Goddamnit. **

**This chapter... Oh, this chapter. **

**You know that feeling when you're almost done writing and you read it and realize: 'God damn, this is a piece of crap'? That's how I continuously felt about this chapter. I had to rewrite it over and over until I got to the finished version.**

**I also decided to re-edit my past chapters, you know, just cleaning them up a little. Except for chapter 3. I read it and thought that the theme was far too similar to chapter 2, so I decided to re-write it completely. I also did some changes in chapter 1. Tell me what you think about them. It was all done to make the story more smooth and entertaining, so I really hope I pulled it of. **

**Here are the answers to the reviews: **

**Neea: Thank you very much! Right now I have more free time, so hopefully the coming chapters will come out much quicker than the previous ones. **

**lalalightwood: Yeah... but I think a part of him enjoys being the parent/teacher. Just look at how he is with Luffy. **

**MO-5431: As always, you're awesome! Thank you for your continued support! **

**Lilli: Glad you like it! **

**Adler: Don't worry; whatever life throws at me, I will continue to write this story! **

**Hybrid Wolf Pack: Thank you so much! Have to say... I love your username! I'm sorry that there is so much time between each chapter. Hopefully, I will get better at updating in the future.**

**Gir Crazy: Thank you for your continued support! Yeah, school can really eat up your time. But, as you said, it's always fun to come back to find lots of new reading material! ^_^**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

**/ Daeli **

8) The First Treasure

Age: 11

This was the first time that Buggy had ever laid eyes on a jungle, and he had already decided that he hated it.

The island the Roger Pirates were currently at was small, uninhabited, covered with tall trees and thick foliage and surrounded by a wide, pristine beach. Even though it was in the middle of the afternoon, the light had a hard time slipping through the leaves, making it very hard for anyone to see anything through the wall of green. Combined with the screeching of birds and the occasional roar of some beast, it was enough to make Buggy long for civilization.

The captain had given the order for everyone to gather whatever supplies they could find in the jungle. Well, everyone except Shanks and Buggy, that is.

Buggy and Shanks had been told to search the beach instead of the jungle, probably because the captain wanted to make sure that the two of them was kept out of the way without getting bored. Or rather, to make sure that _Shanks_ was kept out of the way without getting bored.

If Buggy had learned one thing about the redhead it was that he hated being bored, and would cure it in whatever way possible, even if it meant causing trouble. His pranks during times of boredom was the stuff of legends, according to Howard, who had been the victim of these pranks multiple times in the past. Usually the crew could handle Shanks' eccentric behavior, but recent circumstances had made many of the crew-members more short-tempered and less patient then usual.

A week ago they had suddenly run into a big pod of Island Whales, which had resulted in _The West Wind_ almost getting smashed by the great beasts' tails. The ship had escaped without too much damage and no one had gotten badly hurt, but most of their water barrels had been destroyed. They had managed to survive by rationing the water they had left and collecting rain whenever they could, but the crew had become tense at the very possibly future of their water running out. Being without water on the seas was every sailor's worst nightmare.

For some reason, Shanks had been one of the few (the others being Rayleigh, Roger and Sleigh) who didn't seemed fazed by their serious situation. He had simply become bored because the fun-loving pirates crew that he was a part of didn't seem very interested in having any kind of fun what-so-ever, and two days ago, when not even Buggy had been able to entertain him (because hey, he was pretty freaking worried as well!), he had tried to prank Bane to amuse himself. Big mistake, as the black-haired youth had grabbed him and almost thrown him overboard in his fury. Luckily, Howard and Mikken had intervened before anything too serious happened.

It would be an understatement to say that Shanks had been dancing on everyone's last nerves.

When the lookout finally screamed "Land ho! Land ho!", the crew members had all cheered in joy. Some of them even started crying like big babies.

(Not Buggy though, nope. He had just gotten something in his eyes, goddammit!)

So, here they both were, walking along the beach. Buggy wasn't too thrilled that he was the one to get stuck with Shanks, _again, _but on the bright side he didn't have to walk into the creepy jungle. Another loud roar was heard and he shuddered.

Buggy looked around for anything that could be considered supplies, but all he could see was sand, water and the dark jungle. He doubted that they would find anything worth salvaging.

Shanks, who was walking in front of him with his hands in his pockets, suddenly turned to him and said, "I'm bored."

"No shit, redhead." scoffed Buggy. "You've only said that a couple hundred times in the last day."

Shanks looked torn. "I'm sorry, but – Gahhh!" He suddenly threw his arms out and let himself fall backwards into the sand, making Buggy jump back with a curse.

"What the heck's the matter with you?!"

Shanks sighed. "I just... I'm gonna stay here for a while. You can go ahead if you want."

Buggy just stared at the boy laying in front of him. "...Are you sick?"

Shanks snorted before sighing again and looking up at Buggy. "You don't wanna be here with me, anyway?" He sat up and gazed out over the sea. "Neither does any of the others. It's why they sent us to look for supplies... on a beach."

With every word he sounded more and more bitter, and honestly? Buggy wasn't really sure how to handle this side of Shanks.

"Well, to be honest, playing pranks while we were running out of water may not have been the smartest thing you've ever done. And seriously? Bane? Why would you piss of the guy who hates kids over all else?"

Shanks tore his gaze from the sea view and glared at Buggy. "I wasn't trying to piss him of! I was trying to make the others laugh!"

Buggy cooked an eyebrow. "By pissing him off."

Shanks huffed and lied down in the sand, closing his eyes to the world.

Buggy then grinned. "Still, seeing Bane dance around screaming was a sight to remember. Putting itching powder in his trousers? I'm still surprised he didn't kill you."

The corner of Shanks mouth went up a bit. "Yeah, that was awesome. I know that Mikken would have usually found it hilarious. But even he yelled at me."

Buggy sat down beside him. "Like I said: Bad timing. I still don't understand why you weren't worried like the others. Running out of water isn't exactly calming when you're on the sea."

"Oh, that's easy to answer. The captain wasn't worried, right?"

"...Right."

"So, there was no real reason to be worried. It's not my fault that the others freaked out before we were in any real danger. They should have more faith in the captain."

'Yeah, well, maybe you have too much faith in the captain', Buggy thought to himself. The utter devotion that Shanks held for Roger still baffled him sometimes. It was like the redhead thought him as more than human.

The man was strong, extremely strong even. That much Buggy could admit to. But he was still human. And no amount of devotion on Shanks' part would ever change that fact.

Speaking of which...

"I've been wondering about something."

"What?"

"What did Roger do to make you this devoted to him?"

Shanks opened his eyes and looked at the boy sitting by his side. He could tell him. He could tell him the whole story, right here, right now. But...

"All else aside... It's a beautiful day, isn't?"

Buggy was a little annoyed by Shanks changing the subject, but decided to let it go. Obviously, it was something Shanks didn't want to talk about and who was Buggy make someone spill their secrets? It's not like he was in a hurry to reveal his own.

And the redhead was right. It was a beautiful day.

A light suddenly caught the corner of Buggy's eye. He looked out over the water.

Nothing.

He shrugged. Probably just the sun hitting the water.

Then he saw something flashing again. 'No, that's not the sun. It's coming from the deeper waters. What is it?'

He suddenly got up, surprising Shanks.

"Whoa! What's up, Buggy?"

Buggy completely ignored Shanks and went into the water. He concentrated his eyes to the max. It was hard to see through the reflecting water, but he could vaguely see a large, dark shadow lurking under the surface.

Shanks, growing concerned when the clown didn't answer him, got up as well. "Hey, Buggy! What is it? Answer me!"

To Buggy, Shanks voice was simply a murmur in the background. All his senses was focusing on the shadow under the water.

'A shark? No, it's not moving. It looks like... Can it be...?'

His face lit up in a large grin and he suddenly dove into the water.

"BUGGY!"

Shanks ran out into the water, but did not dive after him. There was no telling what lived in these waters.

The West Blue was famous for its gigantic and dangerous sea fauna, and had been classified as the the most dangerous sea to travel on, excluding the Grand Line of course. Even Sea Kings sometimes wandered in from the Calm Belt to feast on the large wildlife, making the ocean even more perilous.

Long story short: One should never dive into the West Blue without checking that it's free of creatures capable of swallowing you whole or ripping you to shreds.

And the always overly cautious Buggy had just dived into the ocean without any hesitation.

It wasn't like him at all, and Shanks couldn't think of anything that could have made Buggy act so reckless.

As he searched the water for any signs of his big-nosed comrade, he finally saw whatever it was that had grabbed Buggy's attention. A giant shadow lurking beneath the surface of the deeper end of the shore that stretched for over thirty meters and had a streamlined shape.

It was a ship.

Still didn't explain why Buggy would dive after it. By the look of things it had been here for a while, and while the island was uninhibited it wasn't unexplored. There was next to no chance that there were anything worth risking your life for left on that ship.

Suddenly, Buggy resurfaced, gasping for air, but before Shanks could even draw breath to yell at him, the clown dived again.

To say that Shanks was annoyed was putting it lightly. "You goddamn bastard! Get up here so I can hit you!"

A couple of minutes passed before Buggy again breached the surface. Shanks didn't waste any time.

"Are you crazy, Buggy?! We don't know anything about what's in these waters! Get out of there before you get eaten, you big-nosed idiot!"

He waited for the usual reaction of Buggy roaring at him for insulting his nose, but surprisingly nothing happened. Buggy just kept panting with a weird look on his face, staring at something in his hand.

"Hey, red-nose, did you hear me?!"

A large grin slowly took over Buggy's face and he suddenly took of swimming towards the beach.

Something was not right here. Shanks furrowed his brow, not liking how Buggy was behaving. And he especially didn't like how the clown wasn't reacting to any of his insults. Being called red-nose or big-nose was usually enough to send Buggy into raging rants of fury. But this time he was acting like the insults didn't even matter.

It was creepy.

Buggy was a fast swimmer, so in no time he was standing on the sandy beach, dripping with sea water.

"You wanna tell me what the hell all that was about?" said Shanks, standing with his arms crossed, leaking annoyance from every pour in his body.

Buggy simply looked Shanks with the large grin still on his face and then said three little words that instantly evaporated any negative feelings Shanks had been carrying for the last week. Three little words that would stir up feelings of utter joy in anyone that heard them.

"I found treasure."

Especially if you were a pirate.

"Huh?! Really?! Let me see, let me see!"

Shanks stretched out his hand towards Buggy's clenched fist, but Buggy suddenly grabbed him and held his wrist in an iron-grip. His grin had slipped away and he was now glaring at the redhead with his usual glower.

Despite the pain of the grip, Shanks couldn't help but feel relieved that his crew mate was acting more like his old self again.

"Hands off!" Buggy growled through clenched teeth. "I'll show you what it is, but if you try to take it I will stab you. Got that?!"

Shanks frowned, "Sheesh, Buggy! I wouldn't do that! You found it so of course it's yours. I just want to see it."

Buggy let go of his hand and looked at Shanks carefully, weighing between showing what he had found and keeping it to himself, but it only took a few seconds before the temptation to show off became too much.

And then he opened his hand.

Shanks gasped in wonder. It was a locket, and at one time it must have been quite beautiful. It was made out of silver, as was the chain it was hanging on. But having been submerged in salt water for so long had turned the once brilliant locket, as well as the chain, into a dull blackish green. No, the thing that had made him gasp was the sapphire taking up the front-side of the locket. Unlike the silver, the years spent in the ocean had done nothing to dim its brilliance, and when the sun hit the sapphire with its rays, the gem shone like a star in Buggy's hand.

"Buggy, this is beautiful. Was this really inside the ship?"

Buggy nodded and then pointed towards the big shadow in the water. "There is a big hole straight into the storage room. I saw something reflecting from inside it and this was what I found."

"You saw a glimpse of a reflection from inside a sunken ship and dived into water you know nothing about?" Shanks asked incredulously. "How could you tell that it was something valuable and not just a reflection?"

Buggy shrugged. "I don't know. I just knew there was something there. Instinct, maybe?"

Shanks grinned in disbelief. "Instincts for treasure hunting? Wow, you are beginning to become just as crazy as the rest of us."

Buggy huffed, "Shut up! And just so you know, you can't tell anyone else about this pendant."

"Why not?" asked Shanks. "They would think it was awesome, even if Rayleigh will scold you for just jumping into the water."

Shanks suddenly felt Buggy take hold of him and shake him. "No! It's mine, and I won't share it with anyone! You hear me?!"

Shanks, being shaken back and forward like a rattle, was again struck with how quickly the clown could become agitated. He shook himself free and put up his hands in calming matter. "Okay, okay! I won't tell them! I don't think that they would care, but I won't tell them!" He took a quick look at the clown, and he didn't like what he was seeing.

Buggy was panting. His eyes were wide open and his hands were shaking. He looked as if he was caught in a bad dream. Shanks had been around him long enough by now to know that Buggy was acting in pre-Roger Pirates mode, and that he just needed a moment to snap out of it.

Slowly but surely, a more lucid expression took over and Buggy took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Sorry. But... I just want to have this one for myself, okay? I have never owned something like this before, and..." He stopped talking and stood quietly.

"Well, it's not like I became a pirate for treasure, anyway," Shanks said. "You won't have to worry about me stealing your loot. I have no interest in it." He smiled lightly. "There are things that are more important in life."

"What could be more important then treasure?" Buggy asked in disbelief.

Shanks looked out over the ocean. There were a lot of things he could think of that were way more important to than gold and jewels. Adventures. The ocean and the freedom it symbolized. His nakama. His captain.

Yet in the end he chose to say the one he knew would get the most reaction. "You."

Buggy flushed furiously. His free hand started to scratch his hair in embarrassment. He would never get how Shanks could say stuff like that and not get embarrassed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just... stop saying shit like that. You sound like a girl."

Shanks smiled brightly. "Let's go back to the ship now. We've been gone for a while and it doesn't look like there is anything useful on the beach anyway." He started walking back towards the ship, his steps light and his head held high. There was nothing left of the moody, depressed kid that had arrived at the beach.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Buggy ran up to his crew mate and they started on their walk back to the others. From time to time Buggy would glance down at the gem, assuring himself that it was real and all his. 'This is the beginning', he thought to himself. 'The beginning of my journey of gathering all the treasures in the world!'

It was a good day.


	9. The Cons of Having Conqueror's Haki,

**Hi everyone! Daeli here with a fresh, new chapter! And I got some exciting news for all of you! **

**I have decided that I will post at least one chapter per month, to get some regular progress in the story. If I can I will post two per month. But now you can look forward to more frequent updates than before! **

**In this chapter, I give Shanks a surname. Yup, that's how pretentious I am! I may not be as great at name-giving as Oda himself, but I hope you like the name I have given him. And if you don't... yeah, well, you'll have to deal with it. XD**

**Here, as always, comes my answers to your reviews:**

**Raphlez: I know, right? ^_^**

**Morwyn K: Thank you! It feels awesome knowing that you love (not like, LOVE!) my fanfiction. **

**MO-5431: Thanks again! I'm glad that the changes came out okay. **

**PandamoniumPress: Glad you liked it! And you can be sure to expect more back-story on Buggy, as well as Shanks. **

**BlueStar Sapphire – ProtoZero: Yeah, as nice as it is to just follow Buggy and Shanks in their misadventures, a good plot never hurt anybody! ^_^**

**And to all of you who have decided to follow my story and/or put it in your Favorites list: Thank you! Even if you don't put your appreciation into words, your actions warms my heart!**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

**/Daeli **

9) The Cons of Having Conqueror's Haki, As Well As Not Having It

Age: 11

There was something that had been nagging at Buggy for a while. Well, actually, it had been nagging at him since the day he meet Shanks, but he had never bothered to ask him before since he had been planing to leave the crew anyway. But now, with the two of them eating lunch out on the deck in comfortable silence, he figured he might as well get his curiosity sated once and for all.

"How did you become a part of this crew?"

Shanks swallowed the noodles he was chewing on.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because no one wants to tell me!" Buggy snapped. "They have no problem on blabbing about when THEY joined the crew, how the captain saw THEIR great potential or saved THEIR lives or whatever. But ask about you and BAM! They all snap shut like clams."

Shanks smirked.

"You've been asking around about me?"

A faint red hue rose on Buggy's cheeks.

"Don't read too much into it. Pure curiosity, is all. Apart from your fainting trick I have yet to see why any pirate crew would bother with you."

Shanks furrowed his brow.

"Thanks for that. It really warms my heart."

He halfheartedly moved his fork through the noodles.

"It's not really that different from how you got recruited. Captain Roger, Rayleigh-san and Sleigh stopped by my island, found me interesting because of my power and kidnapped me. The only real difference is that I willingly let myself be kidnapped."

He started eating again. "That's it."

But Buggy was far from satisfied.

"Why did you go with them? Didn't you have any family?"

"...No one that really cared, no."

"So, the reason you were recruited in the first place was only because of your power?" He scoffed. "Well, aren't you lucky?"

"...Lucky, huh."

The tone of Shanks voice made Buggy glance at him. The redhead had a wistful and sad smile on his face and his eyes were obstructed by his hat. Buggy don't know what he had said, but it had apparently made Shanks a little upset.

"You know...," Shanks began, "...if I could restart my life and chose whether or not to have this power, I would chose not to have it."

"Huh?" asked Buggy. "Really? But it's really rare and really powerful! Who would not want that kind of power?" Green eyes flashed through his mind and he felt a stab of both pain and envy. "I wish I had that power."

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

Shanks' outburst made Buggy jump in his seat and stare at him in surprise. Shanks eyes were practically burning with fury, a sight Buggy hadn't seen for a long while. In most of their disputes he usually only managed to make Shanks angry or irritated, but making him furious was another thing entirely.

Suddenly Buggy felt the railing creak behind him, like the wood was being bent by something with great weight. As the creaking grew louder and louder, a trickle of trepidation crept up Buggy's spine.

"Oi!" The shout snapped Shanks out of his rage and the wood settled behind Buggy, much to his relief.

Bane was glaring at the two of them from half-way up the mast.

"Simmer down, you two! And Shanks, could you at least TRY to control your Haki?! If you break the boat, I'll break your leg, is that clear?!"

Buggy and Shanks hung their heads in shame.

"Sorry, Bane."

"Yeah, sorry."

The black-haired sailor huffed in annoyance, before jumping down to the deck and stomping off to the dining room. The two boys watched him go in silence before turning their attention on each other.

"What the hell did I say to make you that pissed off? And you call me a hothead, " Buggy whispered furiously.

Shanks sighed heavily.

"Sorry. It's just that... You _really_ don't know what you're talking about. The Conqueror's Haki is not a gift. It's a curse."

"Yeah? How so?" asked Buggy.

Shanks opened his mouth to answer, but snapped his jaw shut when two members of the crew walked past them, chatting. He waited until they were further away before whispering.

"If I tell you this, will you promise not to tell anyone?"

Buggy leaned closer, his curiosity peaking even more.

"Yeah, sure."

"Not ever?"

"I told you, I won't ever tell!"

"Not even during torture?"

"Would you get on with it already?!"

"Okay, okay!" Shanks said laughing, holding his hands up.

But then the laughter left his voice and the same strange expression of sadness and wistfulness crept onto his face.

"The reason why nobody talks about my joining the crew is because pretty much no one knows much about it. When I joined, there was only the captain, Rayleigh-san and Sleigh in the crew, and even they know only what little I've told them. It's not that I don't trust the crew, but... there are things that happened in my past that I'm ashamed of."

Buggy gazed imploringly at the redhead. It couldn't be that bad, could it? At least no worse than his own past.

"Go on."

"Well... To start anywhere I guess I should tell you who am. I grew up on Duvin Island. Heard of it?"

"Yeah... Isn't that the island that's famous for its liquor? Carnibal Island would get shipments from it pretty often."

"Do you know who the owners of Duvin Island is?"

Buggy scratched his head.

"...Hmmm... Well, I think it is something like... C-something... It's one of those fancy names. I do know that they're one of the richest families in the West Blue."

He then brightened up and hit his fist in his hand.

"That's right! It's Couteau! It was always written with big letters on the boxes from Duvin Island."

Shanks fidgeted a little in his seat before blurting, "My full name is Couteau Shanks."

"I see, you're a Couteau..." Buggy froze mid-nod. He then slowly turned to look at the redhead. And then he snapped like a taught string.

"WHAT?! YOU'RE A... MPPFF!"

Quick as a flash, Shanks had slapped his hands over Buggy's mouth, muffling his voice.

"Keep your voice down!"

Buggy still had a freaked out look in his eyes. Under Shanks' hands muffled screams could be heard and the clown's hands flailed around, trying to get the redhead to let him go.

But Shanks' grip was iron tight and eventually Buggy's arms stopped flailing and the muffled screams toned down to mere mutterings.

"You calm?"

Buggy slowly nodded.

"Good."

Shanks slowly let his hands off Buggy's face. The clown was clearly shocked, but seemed to have gathered his wits somewhat.

"You're part of one the richest families on the North Blue?! You're not the heir, are you?!"

Shanks snorted. "_No._ I'm the illegitimate son between a villager and the youngest daughter of the Couteau family."

"Oh."

That was surprising. Not as surprising as finding out that the resident redhead had been born as part of a practically royal family, but still.

"How are you still alive? I've seen enough nobles on Carnibal Island to know that most of them would never allow a bastard in their family."

"From what my mother told me, I was allowed to live on certain conditions. I never learned what those conditions were, but it seemed to have been enough to keep me alive. My aunts and uncles all have children of their own, so it's not like I could compete with them about the inheritance."

He slurped another mouthful of noodles.

"I didn't even live in the mansion. Wasn't allowed to 'mingle with my betters'. The only family I ever meet on a regular basis was my mother and my grandfather... I didn't have any friends either, since I wasn't allowed to play with my cousins and the village kids thought my hair looked funny. That's more or less how I was living for years."

Buggy mulled on that for a minute, before asking, "And then what happened?"

A shadow was cast over Shanks' face. He chewed slowly on his noodles before swallowing.

The two boys sat in silence, one of them thinking intently, the other waiting impatiently.

At last Buggy sighed and muttered irritably, "If you don't want to tell me, it's fine. I don't care..."

"It's not that!" Shanks interrupted. "It's just..." He sighed and leaned back on his hands, looking up at the sea gulls flying above the ship. "I've been wanting to tell someone for so long, and I had decided that you're gonna be the first one I tell this to, but... I just don't know how to say it."

Buggy slurped another mouthful of his noodles, "Don't make it more complicated than it has to be, long stories bore me to death," he said whiles still chewing. He swallowed and continued, "Just sum it up in a sentence or two."

Shanks stared in disbelief at the clown. "One sentence?!"

"Or two."

Shanks furrowed his brow and crossed his arms thinking intently before nodding decisively. "Okay, how's this?" He took a great, deep breathe.

"The first time I used Conqueror's Haki I accidentally killed my mother."

Buggy's eyes bugged out of his head and he choked on the noodles. He hit his chest repeatedly and finally managed to swallow.

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

Some crew-members milling about the deck had their eyes drawn towards the shout, but seeing that it was only Buggy, they went about their business.

Buggy, realizing that he had been really loud, hushed his voice and whispered frantically, "Are you pulling my leg, redhead?!"

Shanks, who looked a bit shaken after Buggy's outburst, mumbled, "You're the one who wanted me to summarize it..."

"But I didn't expect you to say something like that! Geez, redhead..."

He looked about him, making sure that no one was listening to their conversation, and then whispered, "How the hell did it happen?!"

"My mother and my grandfather was arguing about something, I don't remember what, I had been outside playing. I suddenly heard a crash, and ran inside. My grandfather had thrown a vase on the floor, and he had his hand raised. I thought that he was gonna hurt her, and yelled at him to stop."

His hands clenched into fists, and Buggy could see them shaking.

"My grandfather only stumbled, but mother and the two servants that had come with grandfather fainted. Mother fell to the side and... the-there was a stone table and she..."

He trailed off, but he really didn't need to say anything more. Buggy could imagine just fine what must have happened.

"Man that sucks."

Shanks snapped his head up and stared in disbelief at the clown. "'Man that sucks'? That's all you've got to say about this?"

Buggy looked uncomfortable and scratched his hair while mumbling, "What else do you expect me to say? I'm not exactly well versed in giving someone condolences, you know." He put his hand down and looked at Shanks. "It does explain why you hate your power, though. Your mum was the only one who cared about you, right?"

Shanks nodded.

"And then, when you tried to help her, you used your power and accidentally killed her, right?"

Shanks flinched, but slowly nodded again.

"So, that sucks. Sometimes bad things happen, even if you don't mean them to. Believe me, I know all about that."

He noticed Shanks staring at him intently and fidgeted.

"A-Anyway, you shouldn't feel too bad about it. It's obvious that it was an accident and anyone who says differently is a flashy moron."

Any other person might have felt insulted by the callousness he used to speak of someone's dead mother, but Shanks found it almost refreshing. He'd had no idea how Buggy was going to react when he told him about his mother, and Buggy giving his condolences, as awkward as they were, and saying that he shouldn't blame himself was more than Shanks could have ever hoped for.

His grandfather's wrath; the despise, anger and fear of the villagers; even the initial interest from his dear captain... And all because he had a power he could not control, a power that had killed his mother.

But Buggy... Buggy was unmoved by his power, both literally and figuratively. He wasn't afraid of him or despised him, even after he had told him his deepest secret.

A small smile played on his lips. He had chosen his first friend well.

"Thank you."

Buggy blinked. "What for?" he asked confusedly.

Shanks shrugged. "For listening. For not hating me." His smile turned a bit sad. "For not being scared of me."

Buggy 'tsk'-ed. "You gotta do better than that to scare me, redhead."

Shanks laughed, and then suddenly jumped to his feet. "Well, that's enough sitting around! Let's go see if there's any work to be done!"

"Well, aren't you energetic all of a sudden," Buggy said with a deadpan tone in his voice.

Shanks completely ignored the tone, and grabbed hold of his friend's hand, pulling him to his feet.

Buggy, who wasn't prepared in the least, stumbled into the redhead, and swore loudly.

"Goddammit, Shanks! You gotta stop doing that without telling me first!"

"Sorry, sorry!"

Buggy was going to berate him further, but his words got stuck in throat as he saw the overwhelming affection in Shanks' eyes, aimed directly at him. He swallowed and ripped his hand away from Shanks' warm one.

"Let's go already."

"Right!"

As the two boys started walking towards the helm in search of Rayleigh and the captain, Buggy cast a sideways glance at Shanks, who was humming a song under his breath.

As much as his curiosity had been sated by their conversation, a new realization had risen from it that made Buggy have a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He _was_ afraid of Shanks. Just not in the way that Shanks thought he would be.

Even though he was immune to Shanks' power, he could feel the waves come from him when he activated it. When the boat creaked from Shanks' outburst earlier, Buggy had been hit with an epiphany.

_He's only a kid and already this strong_.

Shanks' could say whatever he wanted about his power being a curse or whatever, but at least he had power. And sooner or later, if he wished to become a real pirate, Buggy was sure that he would get over his fear and learn how to control his power. And then he would get even stronger.

While Buggy remained powerless.

He would slowly but surely get ahead of Buggy, and then, when the difference of power became too big, he would leave Buggy behind. Find other friends that shared his potential.

All of this should have been fine with Buggy. He did plan to start his own crew someday and quit this crew, which would mean leaving Shanks behind as well.

But, somewhere deep inside him... he realized that he wasn't fine with it.

He was scared of Shanks because he was starting to actually like him as a friend. A friend who would get bored with him eventually, no matter what the redhead said.

'_After all_', Buggy thought as Shanks ran forward with a gleeful greeting towards the captain who was steering the ship, '_he's one in millions. I'm just part of the millions_.'


End file.
